Dark Hearts
by Bookworm452
Summary: Bloom has always had some attraction to darkness, a bad thing for a fairy, but her suppression of it has always been necessary to fit in. That was until a incident a month ago, not that she can actually remember it. She just knew that it felt too good, too right.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Okay, this is my second fanfic. Not entirely sure if people liked my first one; I think I'll finish that one off pretty quickly instead of having it how I planned with movie dialogue and taking place within the films. I think two chapters at most for that and they'll be uploaded very gradually because of college (UK; college is not university – they're very different things), coursework, uni applications, etc and of course, my writing outside of this. Should I ever have the ability to force myself to write and edit again; I have long periods of do-nothing then periods of doing things… Got to stop that!**

**Sorry, I'm rambling on. This is a slightly AU fanfiction, I'm changing part of Bloom's background and also Darkar's appearance (I always see Ian Somerholder as him for some reason, so that is what he'll look like). So the prologue was written months ago for a manuscript that I've currently got side-lined, hence why I'm changing Bloom's transformation and please don't ask what the dark language is, it was months ago so I can't remember.**

**The last part of this author's note I'll mention some pieces that inspired me to write this. First thing is the film City of God (which is one of the films that I'm studying in A2 Film) – it's horrific and disturbing but also a true story, the song included in this fanfiction, and also Midnight Lost's 'Heart of Darkness' fanfiction as well as the story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.**

**So on with the story.**

Prologue: One Month Ago

Lord Darkar watched the woman in front of him. He observed her calmly. She was a sickly thin woman, her hair matted over her pale, stark face. She couldn't have been more than thirty, at maximum. But here she was; chained to the black stone wall with her clothes in tatters, clothes that were decorated by her own blood. She was crying, had been for hours. She was begging for freedom. No, this little bitch owed him a debt and he planned to get paid. He twirled the knife into between his fingers and bent down to her eye line.

"Please." She begged hysterically, tears still streaming. "Please, just let me go."

He ran the fingers of his empty hand across the woman's cheek. She continued crying and begging. He pressed a pale finger to her trembling lips in an effort to make her shut the fuck up. She did. He moved his finger to continue stroking her cheek.

"I'm sorry." He cooed softly. "But you will pay your debts, sweetheart and you'll pay in blood."  
The woman started to cry and beg again. "Please, please…"

He jabbed the knife into the woman's bare shoulder and pulled it back out. He stared at the blood covering the blade. Raising it to his lips, he pressed his tongue against the knife and licked. It was so dark, so rich - tasted so good and it was hot. The wonderful taste of hot copper burned his throat as it rushed through him. Fuck. Darkar closed his eyes in bliss before slowly opening them again, once the blood was gone. Such a shame.

He raised the knife again, cutting her throat this time. Hot blood gushed out from the deep wound like a waterfall. She tried to move and scream. She only caused herself bleed more. He grinned to himself. Feeding time.

Tendrils of darkness lapped up the blood. They grew darker and darker. Darkar watched them with a malicious mix of eagerness and hunger, some part of him wishing that it was him lapping up all that hot, dark scarlet blood but now was not the time. He had to control himself. It didn't take long for the Shadows finish feeding. He stood and looked at the woman's body. She was pretty, she would have made a good pet and her blood had been delicious but that didn't matter anymore. Her debt was paid, the Shadows strengthened and now it was time for the last phase of the plan.

He walked out of the dungeons, through a hallway and took a cut-through across his throne room. The room he entered was small. Four large fire stands lit with black flames and biolumscient quartz crystals were the only light sources. In the centre of the room was an ornate stone table and laid on that table was the key to all of this. Bloom. She struggled against the restraints, oblivious to him. He let his eyes wonder over her.

She was a thin and pale girl with the figure somewhat similar to a pre-teen boy although she wasn't flat-chested. Her hair was red, fiery – just like her, and the bright blue of her eyes in her round face complimented by the light dusting of freckles of across her nose. Darkar loved the somewhat cat-like shape to her eyes. It suited her personality; tough, like a wild cat kept in a cage for so long that it forgot about the outside world.

Bloom wasn't a short girl, he'd assumed that she was shorter than her 5'6 height and he'd had to get a longer table to tie her to. Darkar was ashamed that he'd had to put poor Bloom in the dungeon but she wasn't here willingly. He had to remind himself of that. He stepped closer to her and reached out. He caressed her pale cheek. She flinched and turned her head away.  
He sighed and moved his hand.

"You know what has to happen, right my dear?" Darkar asked softly as he watched her turn her head again. Fury burned in her eyes.

"Don't call me that! Ever!"

"That's all I had to do to get you to talk?" He questioned in an amused tone. "Are you going to answer my first question?"

"Yes. It doesn't have to happen! Please just let me go."

She began to fight at the restraints again. Darkar sighed and walked around the table. He placed his hands on her skinny shoulders and bent down, placing his lips next to her ear.

"Why does everyone think I'll be merciful if they beg?" He asked, letting his breath tickle her ear. He watched as Bloom closed her eyes gently and suppressed a groan. The emotions flickered across her face and changed as he saw her fight her natural instincts and the attraction that came with them. He grinned to himself.

"I'm a monster, my dear Bloom. And I'll tell you why. I revel in my killing, I love the feeling of watching the light leave someone's eyes. I make people my personal playthings, I'm a sadistic and dangerous man."  
Darkar ran a finger over the outer shell of her ear and watched her reaction. If only the past hadn't happened… "But, I'll never be that way with you, my dear. No matter what happens in the next few hours."

"I'm not going to turn, Darkar! I'm not."

He chuckled. "You think I don't know about your little internal struggle that you've being having for the past two years? The struggle to not give into your instincts?"

Her furious eyes became closed off.

"Shut up. You don't know what you're talking about."

"We'll see. You see, it's impossible for any person to be one hundred percent innocent unless you're a newborn or you're a tabula rasa. Therefore, I can turn and corrupt any person including and especially you." He told her before pulling the crystal shard out of his pocket. He stood up straight and held the shard at his eye level.

"Tenebrasama offunduntati, angustosti luxva dela omnibusiti, tuumje naturalemne tènebrisne. " He whispered the mingled mix of Latin and Croatian. The most powerful and the original language of black magic. Darkar brought his other hand to the bottom of the crystal. Crackling black flames burst to life in his palm. He burnt the crystal.

Thick, black smoke rose and the thick shadows around the room began to move again. The tendrils danced in excitement. The smoke slithered down to Bloom, her lips pressed together so tightly they were white. Her eyes rolled back into her head, her body seizing. She gripped the table so hard, her knuckles were as white as her lips.

The smoke reacted violently to being denied entrance. The smoke became darker, it hissed and swirled before prying Bloom's mouth open, forcing itself into her mouth and nostrils. The crystal was gone, the candles were rather suddenly blown out by an invisible force. The light of the crystals flickered. Her eyes flickered open. Pure black eyes stared. The colour faded, her eyes the same beautiful blue once more. Her lips stretched into a peaceful smile.  
"Bloom…" He breathed.  
"My lord?" She replied.

'_It's just that this, this is not the way I'm wired  
So could you please,  
Help me understand why  
You've given in to all these  
Reckless dark desires  
You're lying to yourself again_'

_The Outsider by A Perfect Circle (Apocalypse Remix)_

Bloom's head was pressed against a textbook. Her eyes were too heavy and she was just _so _tired. Maybe just five minutes?

THUNK.

She jumped awake, eyes wide. She looked around wildly. The source of the noise was three large and heavy textbooks, dropped by none other than Stella. Her best friend had a huge beam on her face as she dropped into the library chair next to her and propped her feet on the tabletop.

Bloom flicked her eyes over Stella, surpressing a meagre amount of jealousy. Stella was a 5'11 Barbie with her blonde hair, tanned skin and athletic figure. Not to mention the big brown eyes.

"You alright?" Stella asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Why wouldn't I?" Bloom questioned in reply.

"I thought that after last month…" She trailed off.

"Exactly, Stel. It was a month ago."

"You still don't remember anything?" She pressed, putting her hand on top of Bloom's. Her eyes flicked upwards into the blonde girl's concerned eyes. She shook her head and propped her head up on her knuckles.

"Think it's PSTD." The fire fairy told Stella, who frowned.

"Maybe-maybe it's for the best, right? You might not be able to remember for a reason! I mean, it was traumatic so of course you can't remember! Who knows what Darkar did to you? Well, you and him. He's dead and you… Blank slate when it comes to that day." The blonde haired princess chattered away. Bloom smiled to herself, it seemed like things were getting back to normal. Or at least, Stella was – talking non-stop for hours on end.

She grabbed the nearest textbook, _A Brief History of Magic_, and opened it to a random page. _The Origins of Dark Magic_. Of course. She sighed and skim-read the text, not really focusing on the pictures until one particular photograph caught her attention.

It had been taken in the middle of a dark ritual. The pale woman in the centre of the inverted pentagram was stripped down to her underwear, the man was in the middle of passing a bloodied black crystal knife to her. The woman had a long crimson cut along her stomach. Lit black candles, blood and bone altar. Dark shadow tendrils. A feeling of déjà vu over took her, she began to feel sick.

"_You think I don't know about your little internal struggle that you've being having for the past two years? The struggle to not give into your instincts?"_

She dropped the book and ran, ignoring Stella's cry of 'Bloom?!'. She ran towards the toilets, not stopping for anyone (not even Griselda who looked like she wanted to yell Bloom's ear off for running into her). Pushing a cubicle door open, she bent down and rested her chin on the toilet seat. A second later, she threw up. How had he known about that? Nobody was supposed to know! The feelings she'd had when they'd broken into Cloud Tower, the way the dark magic called to her; the way those book had sung her name out – dying for her to read them. The incredible thrill and pull of dark magic. No, nobody could know. She knew what would happen if people found out.

'_Bloom raised her head and smiled, welcoming him towards her._

"_My lord…" She breathed as Darkar put a hand under her chin and pulled her towards him._

_He kissed her and forcibly opened her mouth using his own mouth and his tongue as one hand rested on one of her bra-covered-breasts while his other hand gripped at her pelvic bone so hard, she knew there would be bruises later. She arched her back and tossed her wild orange-red hair back as she broke their kiss._'

Bloom got to her feet, wiping her mouth on a piece of toilet roll and turning around to wash her hands in the sink. She stared into the mirror. For a brief moment, the reflection that stared back at her was dressed in black, covered in blood and wearing a dark smile. She resisted the urge to punch the mirror, to shatter it into a million pieces. _That's not me. That's not me. It can't be. It can't be!_

The toilet door opened and Stella walked in, wrapping her arms around her in a tight hug before she could say anything. A few moments later, she let her go.

"Are you okay?" She asked.

Bloom bit her bottom lip. "Yeah, fine." She lied. _Far from it_…

**A/N: The ritual in the prologue was influenced by the opening of the 2009 Sherlock Holmes movie as well as the rituals and demon possession in Supernatural and the rituals and spell-casting in Vampire Diaries and The Secret Circle (the TV shows, not the books).**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: I hope the length of this chapter makes up for the time it took me to write this.**

**So Darkar's attitude in that prologue was actually influenced by a scene from Vampire Diaries in the twelfth episode of season 2 'The Descent' where Damon kills a girl called Jessica. And the idea of a villain that isn't a moustache twirler like quite a lot of bad guys tend to be, but knows that he's doing bad things and admits he likes doing them is always interesting to me.**

**A quick note for this entire story, I've done some research on the symbolism of fire, which has had a major impact on my idea. One of the sites that I found said this:**

'_**If there ever was a dichotomous element it would be Fire. Fire, the bringer of destruction, the symbolism of chaos and war. Fire burns everything, bringing nothing but ruin. And yet, Prometheus risked the wrath of the Titans to bring fire to man. Fire banishes the darkness. Fire cleanses and purifies. Lastly, sometimes Love is spoken of as an eternal flame. Fire can be shown as an agent of destruction. Fire is also usually used for strong emotional feelings (such as love, hate, desire, and determination). Fire can also be used to express determination or a strong desire as well. Characters that have a 'fire-esq' quality to them are also more likely to be violent (in this case violent meaning extreme and chaotic) in their response and more likely to rush into a situation without completely thinking the consequences through.'**_

**One of the key words in that paragraph for me is dichotomous. The witch thing is a reference to season 1, episode 14 (the 4Kids version because it was more relevance, in the Rai one she's told that she's a reincarnation of the Ancestoral Witches). In one episode, Darkar claims that Bloom has become dark for good yet it's never revisited in the series so that doesn't make sense (hope they do revisit it because that of my reason above). And just give you some imagery about the festival in this chapter:**

** www. hornsealakes wp-content/ uploads/2010/10/ **

** . wordpress 2010/12/hull-fair .jpg**

** wikipedia/commons /9/91/Hull_Fair _14-10-09_ **

**So I have two questions for you guys, just quickly, if you could make a live action movie; who would you cast? And who are your least favourite characters? I have an idea who I would but I'm just curious. Lastly, I'm not sure how accurate my representations of the characters are though, so bare with me until I get everything planned out.**

'_Everybody's looking for something,  
Some of them want to use you.  
Some of them want to get used by you,  
Some of them want to abuse you.  
Some of them want to be abused,  
Sweet dreams are made of this.  
Who am I to disagree?_'

_Sweet Dreams (are made of this) by Emily Browning (cover)_

Fear gathered in Bloom's stomach as she walked across the dark hall. Large windows let in dark, slanting light from the crystals outside the castle. It looks like a church, even though the room only contained an ancient, black piano shoved into a corner. The dark floor was a smoothly-shined marble and obsidian pillars cast imposing silhouettes across the door.

Standing in front of one of the huge windows, the male figure cast a huge shadow. He'd changed his clothes since the last time she'd seen him, his arms were crossed over his chest; his long sleeves were rolled up to his elbows. They weren't decorated with blood anymore but they were still black, he looked like he could be going to a funeral in his shirt and pants. He spun around as she approached.

"Bloom." He said and, even though he'd cleaned up, the image of him all bloody and dangerous had burned itself into her head.

_I loved it. You know we did. _A voice at the back of her head purred. _Let me out. It's been a month. You know I need to come out! You can't keep me locked up in here._

_I can and I am. Leave me alone!_

_What part of the word 'we' don't you understand? I'm a part of you, I am you – you're me. We're the same! _The voice growled.

Suddenly she felt nauseous. "It's been a while."

"A month."

"Oh? That long?" He asked politely, but that was something he rarely did. Doubt nagged at the back of her mind; was this the same person? He was acting so different. Darkar took a step towards her yet he still stood in the centre of the beam of light that the window let through. Imposing.

"You can't be real." She whispered; her voice shallow. "You're dead!"

"Ah, sweet denial. It's generally amusing but for you, it doesn't suit you. Remember what I told you? I told you that you know about your internal struggle, I told you how I would kill everyone who stood in my way. How I would watch the light leave their eyes, how I would see their blood spilled." He told her, the calm in his voice sent a shiver up her spine. Her mouth still felt dry. Darkar looked at her, and pulling out a switch blade, he made a large cut on his arm.

She wanted to run and scream bloody murder but there was some small part of her, buried deep, which wanted to stand and fight him, prove herself to him... That she was worthy of her status at the school and Bloom hated that part of herself. Something about this situation seemed very familiar but she couldn't place why.

Blood began to gather at the wound he had created. The blood smelled sweet, hypnotic and it was drawing her towards him. Bloom found herself stood directly in front of him. She must be going delusional because she swore that his eyes looked like a mix of care and pride.

"Drink." He ordered, his voice was soft. He wanted her to drink his blood?! Part of her felt disgusted but that part was shrinking and shrinking. She wanted to; she was starving… She needed it.

Acting immediately on instinct, she grabbed his arm and drank from the wound on his arm. The grossest thing? She liked it and it felt right. Darkar let out a moan but then, it rapidly turned into an appreciated-sounding sigh. She felt Darkar's hand run through her hair, wrapping her curls around his finger.

"Drink as much as you need." He cooed gently. Hot blood, like copper, warmed up her throat as she swallowed. Every time she paused, she was gasping for more.

BEEP! BEEP!

Her eyes snapped open. How long had she been asleep? It was dark outside, must have been a long time.

"Hey, you're up. I thought you were never going to wake up unless we called Sky.' Flora joked. Bloom looked at her. She was all dressed up. She pulled back her covers and haphazardly got up. "You feeling any better? Headache all gone?"

Sitting down on her bed, she nodded. "Why you all dressed up?"

"You've forgotten?!"

She shrugged, obviously.

"It's the Lumen festival, remember. All of those fair rides, cotton candy…" Layla said, appearing at the door in a blue dress that Bloom knew she could never afford. No, she didn't remember. She didn't remember a lot of things lately it seemed, not that anyone cared to tell her.

"Right." She replied, smiling uncertainly. "I'll just get changed."

"It's cool." Musa told her, also seemingly just appearing at the dorm door. "I'm not dressing up either. It's gunna be jam-packed with people and messy; these guys don't see my logic."

Bloom raised an eyebrow. "Are you guys evasdropping?"

"What? No." Layla replied. Not very convincing… They didn't trust her or they just wanted to keep an eye on her?

"What were you dreaming about?" Flora asked. Bloom shrugged.

"Nothing really."

"You sure?" Musa questioned with a bright beam on her face. "Because it sounded like fun."

She grabbed a pillow and chucked at the Asian girl. Musa backed up, laughing.

"You throw like a girl." She said in-between laughs.

"News flash, we are girls." Layla countered.

"Where's Stella and Techna?" Flora asked.

"Stella's still getting ready, like you even need to ask. Techna's… I think she's researching it so get ready for a lecture on the way there." Musa warned. Bloom giggled as she pulled her sneakers on.

Musa was right, the festival was jam-packed and messy but it was also incredibly loud and bright. Everything had lights, bright multicoloured lights were everywhere and laser lights and spotlights lit up the narrow pavements. Chart music playing so loud it felt like the concrete was vibrating with it. Bloom cheered as she watched Stella and Flora run through the funhouse. Why Stella choose to wear high-heels to this sort of thing she'll never understand. A large clown popped out of them. Stella's shriek could be heard above even the music.

"You going on the ghost train?" Sky said, okay yelled, in her ear.

"No. I think I've had enough scares to last me a life time." She yelled back, taking a bite of her burger.

"Are you sure?" He shouted. "We can always cuddle if you feel scared."

Bloom rolled her eyes. "That's a cliché right there." She screamed over the pounding bass of the current song. "I'll go in the hall of mirrors or most other rides. Just not the ghost train."

"I heard they put some senior witches in charge of that this year." Techna yelled.

"Seriously? Who's idea was that?" Brandon looked at her. He looked awfully girly holding Stella's bag.

"No idea." She replied. Stella and Flora ran towards them, red in the face and giggling.

"That was fun!" Stella shrieked. "Bloom, you're coming on the next one!"

She grabbed her hand and pulled her along, forcing her to drop her burger, as they ran up the steps of a nearby ride. The neon red lights exclaimed that it was 'The Cyclone'.

"Do I get a choice in this?" She yelled.

"No." Musa screamed in reply, laughing.

_We don't get a choice about anything, do we? _The voice in the back of her head snarled. Images of Stella and Musa with their throats cut open and bleeding flashed beneath her lids.

_Stop it_! She replied.

The lights were so bright, it looked like it was on fire. Four three seated 'carriages', for a lack of a better word, were attached to one of the four large mechanical arms. Stella dragged her and Musa into a neon pink seat, shoving herself into the end and dragged Bloom next to her. Musa brought the safety bar down and the over-head lights turned off.

The arms began to spin each carriage around, wind buffeting at their faces as the ride picked up speed. The entire ride began to move in a circle and got faster and faster until the two of them were crushing Stella into the side as the ride hit full speed, the bright lights a dizzying blur all around.

"SCREAM IF YOU WANT TO FASTER!" The DJ screamed into his mike before changing the song, probably blasting out Stella's eardrums as their carriage neared one of the huge speakers. Bloom laughed as Stella and Musa screamed. The ride picked up even more speed as the bright strobe light began to pulse.

Their carriage neared the others. Techna and Layla must be on the ride but that wasn't what caught her attention. It was the man stood behind a laughing Sky, illuminated by the strobe light. He looked early twenties. His skin pale with olive undertones, well-built and three inches shorter than the six foot Sky. A handsome face; strong bone structure with high cheekbones and a solid jaw line. His black hair styled in a casual disarray, not much shorter than Sky's blonde locks. Intense blue eyes stared through dark lashes. A smirk on his face. Fuck.

Did they not see or feel him hovering behind them?

As the carriage pulled away from the railing, he vanished and Bloom was brought back to her senses as the ride jolted to a sudden stop. She climbed out as Stella groaned in pain.

"I think you guys crushed my ribs." She moaned.

"Sorry." Bloom apologised distantly as they headed down the ride's exit. She approached Sky.

"You enjoy that?" He asked.

"Huh? Oh, er yeah, totally." She replied. "Did anyone happen to see a guy stood right behind you guys? Leather jacket, army boots?"

Unsynced variants of a 'no', yelled above the pounding music, met her ears. She nodded, seething in frustration. She was the only one who could see him?

"You feeling alright?" Flora asked, concern written all over her face.

"Yeah." She inwardly cringed, she sounding unconvincing even to herself. "L-let's go to the hall of mirrors." She suggested, gesturing towards the scintilling hall of mirrors across the path.

It wasn't the best idea that she'd ever had. She quickly became separated from everyone apart from the snarling voice of her dark side, yelling at her. She sighed and pressed herself against the wall, staring at her reflection and slid down. She clutched her knees to her chest.

"Why do you trust him? He never told you the truth in the beginning?" Her mirror image asked. She ignored it. Her reflection got up and pressed her hands against the mirror. "I mean if he was really serious, don't you think he would have told you some version of the truth when you started dating? Some form of 'I'm engaged but I don't want to be and I'm trying to convince my parents, the girl's a total bitch as well'? But no. You were basically his mistress and he neglected to tell you!"

The reflection was yelling now, beating her hands against the mirror violently; the glass inside rippling.

"Who's to say that he won't do the same to you?"

"Shut up." She replied in a dull voice, curling her hands into fists.

"I'm just telling you what's going on in your subconscious. After all that's where you're fucking keeping me! Aren't you? Little bitch!"

"Shut up."

"Fucking little bitch! You going to tell yourself to shut up? Right now, I'm stuck as your stupid subconscious again." Bloom's snarling reflection tried to shatter the glass.

"Shut up." She repeated once more, her head beginning to pound violently.

"What are you going to do? Go back to that fucking psychologist?! No, there was a reason you never went back and convinced Vanessa that the treatments had worked, there's a reason who believed the Trix when they told you were a witch."

Bloom almost punched the wall, so glad that Sky had never actually read that book although the image of him backing up, his expression terrified (because he didn't like the fact that he had fallen for a 'witch' or because he was scared of her?) as he tried to put as much distance between them as possible. "Shut up! Shut up the fuck up! Just shut the fuck up! It's your fault we got sent to that fucking psychologist's in the first place!"

The bitter memory rose to the surface; tiny eight year old Bloom sitting on a cold plastic chair in the principal's office, scared and confused as the over-weight man glowered at her over his desk like she was a delinquent in juvie. The looks on Mike and Vanessa's faces as they came into the room, the shame and sadness had cut her deeply. The disbelief on the principal's face as she explained that she had no memory of destroying the toilets, no memory of ever asking to go to the toilet; never mind actually leaving the classroom.

How Mike's calculated look had haunted her as she explained blacking out in the language of a scared eight year old. The moment they had gotten home, Vanessa had rang up the local psychologist. The look on their faces the moment the words 'I think Bloom may have multiple personality disorder' left the doctor's mouth. All of the pills that made her feel weak, sick or both until it got to the point when she was nine and a half, when she only pretended to take the pills and flush them. Slowly learning to suppress the other side of her, and it had worked. Taken about four or five years but it has worked, then the other side was just a voice in her head making snide comments and trying to convince her of things, most of which she had managed to ignore. Until Darkar.

"You know the reason I stopped going there. She wanted to bring you out, make us one whole. I don't want you be a part of me, I don't want to be a part of you." She sighed.

Her reflection smirked at her. "I'm surprised Mike and Vanessa never got tired of us and threw us out on the street."

"_You come from a long line of blood-thirsty witches and the source of your powers is the coven of darkness. You were created to spread misery throughout the universe; this is the purpose for which you were born._"

"_Hmmm. Interesting. Even senior witches don't summon magic __**that**__ dark_."

The words echoed around in her head, over and over. It didn't matter that that book had been a lie, it still haunted her. Maybe it was true and the Trix didn't even know that, with everything that's happened and all the stress and pain she caused Mike and Vanessa, she wouldn't be surprised. Her exchange trip to Cloud-tower… She'd had to suppress all of her negative feelings, but it didn't matter. The darkness had begun to seep into the walls when she had been there, calling out to her; crying and begging. Ignoring it had been painful, unbelievably painful.

The fact that her dark magic had been darker than a senior witch's still scared her. Was that something to do with Darkar? Had it been the effects of the fake Professor Avalon? Had he been slowly training her body for the transformation, slowly dipping her in darkness so she would be ready?

_**Lord**__ Darkar_. The voice in her head corrected her.

_Yeah, whatever like I give a shit_.

_You know we do._

_Fuck off! _She screamed in her head.

Or was she just being stupid? Suppressing how good it felt, how right everything had felt? She swallowed. Who could she talk to about it? Not Faragonda.

_I still think Faragonda knew everything and allowed it. She has to have! How could she not? She saw the rituals, she used to be a witch so how could she not recognize them?!_

_I don't think she did._

_What you don't see my logic there?_

_No, I do it's just… I don't know. It doesn't seem like her._

_Why because she seems sweet and kind? We seem sweet and kind! At least, when you're in control… Which is nearly all of the time!_

No way in hell could she talk to Saladin. Griffin? Yeah, Griffin seemed to be her best option. She knew what happened, she was there and she knew dark magic. Bloom got up off of her bed and turned to Flora, who was busy on some doing some homework.

"Hey, I'm just going out for a while. I won't be long, okay?" She asked.

"Sure thing. Just text me if you need anything or if you don't feel very well, okay? Because, sweetie, you don't look so good." Flora answered. She waved it off.

"I'm fine."

Cloud-tower was still dark and imposing as ever. Bloom walked through the darkly-painted corridor's with a sense of dignity (although she felt as though that was her dark side, radiating darkness and power), but tried to hide from the students yet still trying to remember where Griffin's office was. Unfortunately, she wasn't that lucky as she bumped into a year of witches. She didn't like the looks they gave her, it made her feel self-conscious. The whispers made her ears feel irritated and she felt itchy.

_Let them look. They're dark, remember? They're the type of people who wishes Lord Darkar would even consider them!_

_Shut up._

"Hey, bitch what do they think of you over there?!" One of them called, cackling.

"Bet they're all terrified of her. Knowing she might go all dark and witchy at any moment. Who knows what he actually did to her?"

"You don't know what you're talking about so shut the fuck up." Bloom replied, her hands curling into fists.

"Oh yeah, and what you going to do about it?" A witch with green hair shrieked.

"She'll use her firey powers to hurt you." Another one, a blonde girl with what appeared to be a permanent sneer (she still had it during the exchange thing a few months back), said as she pretended to be scared.

"Those powers can't be used for evil though! Imagine the tragedy!" A black-haired one yelled.

"Shut the fuck up." She replied. Anger gripped at her. Her dark side pleading to be let out.

_Let me rip apart one of these bitches! We need to! They need to know who the boss is around here!_

_Stop it._

She felt power begin to pulse in her hands and fear tore its way through the crowd of witches. The power radiating through her lifted the green one up into the air. Some of the skin on her face started to peel off, blood dripping down onto the floor. She began to scream has some of her nails were forcibly ripped off, scarlet blood pouring out. The witch shrieked out as her shoulder was bent at an impossible angle and the bone snapped cleanly in two.

"BLOOM!" A voice near her ear yelled and she jumped a mile high, letting all the power go. The violent pounding in her head started up again.

"Miss Griffin?" She asked dazed as she put a hand to her head. "W-what?"

"To my office." Griffin told her sternly, leading her away. She could still feel all of the eyes burning holes into her back.

_Bitch, let me at that little fucker!_

_No... Can't… Won't let… you…_

Griffin led her into her office. It hadn't changed, it was gothic with the large crystal ball, ancient books that Bloom would love to read and spider-webs painted all over the room. She placed her too-light body into one of the seats before heading around the gothic desk to place herself in the high-back chair. This room always reminded Bloom of a church with the two large windows that poured slanted light in. Griffin waved her hands and the office doors swung shut.

"What was that?" Her tone was soft and concerned. She wasn't running away or avoiding anything like anyone at Alfea would.

"I don't know." Bloom replied, squeezing her eyes shut as black and white spots danced in her vision. "That hasn't happened before. I was just so mad."

"It's okay. I- I won't tell anyone."

"Are you sure?"

Griffin sighed. "Yes, I'm being perfectly honest. Now, what did you want to talk to me about?"

Bloom swallowed and opened her eyes; a cold sweat began to settle over her. "I was wondering if you could tell me about what you meant we were students here for a day, when you said that, that dark magic I created was darker than the senior witches."

"What I meant? It was exactly that. Your magic was darker than any of the senior witches."

"I mean, how could it be so powerful? Do you have a theory?" Bloom made vague gestures in the air.

"No. Unless you happen to have an affinity for dark magic, it's possible that the fake Avalon did something to you, or more than you thought, to make you able to use dark magic so easily." Griffin tried to explain, her purple-gloved hands folded over each other on her desk.

_We know that it's none of them._

She nodded. "He did these practice ritual things and it turned out that it was they were mock versions of what Darkar was doing. Is it possible that had something to do with it?"

The green-skinned woman shrugged. "It's entirely possibly, but despite being a witch I'm not very educated in the dark magic used by these enemies. Dark magic has two levels; witch level and then beyond that. I'm sorry." Griffin moved her hand, resting it on top of Bloom's. "Is there anything else you want to talk about it?"

Bloom drew in a deep breath and then let it out. "When we rescued Layla at the beginning of the year, I saw Darkar. Nobody else saw him, just me, and he was about to attack… Then he looked at me and-and he didn't. He sent in the fake Avalon. He saw me and the way he looked at me… I-I don't know."

Her eyes burned with tears and she let out a ragged sob as she began to cry.

Griffin couldn't believe what she was doing but the crimson-haired fairy's words had left curious and saddened; she wasn't heartless after all. But seeing him? Probably not the best idea.

"Miss Griffin, he's ready for you." One of the prison guard's called gruffly.

She nodded, standing up and brushing down her dress. "Right."

The prison guard, his name-tag read 'John', led her down a depressing corrugated iron hall-way. There was no windows what so ever, the harsh light came from the florescent lights above. John motioned to one of the visiting desks. Cubicles for two people to sit at, one visitor and one prisoner, separated by a wall of clear plastic. Guards lining both sides of visiting area.

The man before her surprised her. He wasn't smug or snarky, in fact he looked depressed and like he had given up on the world. His black hair was messy and unwashed, his eyes looked desolate. The prison uniform and handcuffs didn't help him any.

Griffin sat down and tapped on the plastic window. He looked, surprised to see her.

"Miss Griffin, I'm surprised to see you. I didn't think I'd get any visitors." He admitted, clicking one of his fingers.

"Didn't think or didn't want?" She raised an eyebrow.

He shrugged. "Same difference."

"So what do I call you?" Griffin asked.

The fake Professor Avalon grimaced. "Cloud spirits don't have names. But I'm trapped like this; I suppose I should have a name. Ben seems nice and generic, doesn't have any bad stigma attached to it."

"Okay, Ben. I was wondering what you knew about Darkar's plan for Bloom." She said hesitantly, afraid it might set him off.

"I'm sorry but he didn't tell me all that much. He told me to keep an eye on her and to do some mock rituals but they were just instructions on a piece of paper, I didn't know anything about them. I'm sorry if that's the information you came for."

"So is that the reason you spent so much time with Bloom? Before your, for lack of a better word, reveal, some of the professors were worried about that."

Ben actually cracked a faint smile. He leaned forward. "I'm not interested in any girls, Miss Griffin, never mind under-age ones and one of my students at that."

"Oh. Sorry if I offended you anyway."

He waved her off. "It's fine. Some of the staff asked me to an eye on her as well. They were worried about her, after all of the events last year – seemingly losing and regained her powers, finding out her birth parents and the destruction of Sparx. I understood their concern and excuse me for dispelling one of your belief's but just because I was forcibly turned dark didn't mean that I didn't care for my students."

Griffin was shocked, definitely, obviously but she hid it well. "Did you know that Bloom saw Darkar before he sent you to save them at the beginning of the year?"

"No, I didn't. I was under the impression that he had been going to attack and then changed his mind – wait! She saw him? Like she properly saw him?"

"That's what she told me. Why?"

Ben glanced around and leaned forward even more, centimeters from the plastic that separated them. "What me and you see as Darkar is what most people see. The skeletal figure, the glowing armor… That's an illusion that everyone see's due to his title but it's not what he actually looks like. Very few people can and it looks like Bloom is one of them. Did she tell you what he looks like?"

The was definitely interesting news to her! Information that she never dreamed about, that the horrific figure she had seen in Relix wasn't actually him. "No." she replied, feeling shocked. "She didn't… Did he tell you anything else?"

"Only one thing. He told me a story of a Duchess. Her name was Rosario Candelaria, she was a very sweet person. The youngest in her court as well, many men tried to claim her as their wife but she was an independent and strong-willed woman, she refused all of the men. Being a resident in Shadowhaunt allows women freedoms that they don't have in the 'light' world. She accepted one man, he was an engineer, not a hero or a prince or anything.

"He wasn't a shallow man like all of the others had been, he was intelligent and he didn't parade her around like she was a trinket. They fell in love, they married and they had a baby girl. Then one day, the rulers of all the magical planets learned of the child's existence, she was a powerful child and they couldn't allow her to have such power being a resident of Shadowhaunt, despite her parents' neutral political and magic background. The child was less than a year old when the soldiers turned up at their door. Rosario and her husband were brutally murdered for trying to protect their child. The child? The same happened to her, just as cruelly butchered and wiped from existence.

"The only reason they feared that child's power is because it wasn't light and because there was a possibility that the child may turn out dark but being born in Shadowhaunt doesn't mean that that person is evil. No child can be born evil, Miss Griffin."

"Time's up." John's sudden approach made the witch jump. Some other guards were leading Ben away.

"I hope that you think on that." He called back.

'_Different denotes neither good nor bad but it certainly means not the same._'

_The Cheshire Cat in Alice: Madness Returns. _


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: So the reason I was asking about fan casting was because I found out the other day that there is going to be a live action movie, with a rumoured release date of 2015. I think it's going to be English (despite a rumour that it's going to be set in rainbow magic land – God, that sounds like something from My Little Pony! – and in Italy) because I found a quote from the interview with the creator that suggested his ideal casts for Bloom, Stella and Flora. I can only remember Stella's because of some of the comments on the message board. His ideal cast was Jennifer Lawerence and people were on about probably there being a lack of a budget due to Avatar: The Last Airbender (nobody ever let Shamalyan direct any adaption's EVER AGAIN!) and her being an Oscar winner but there could be a high chance of her actually taking it because I was watching the behind the scenes of The Hunger Games (I'm a major film nerd) and she said that she didn't want to take the role of Katniss because it was too much of a big production and she was 'totally fine doing indie's for the rest of my life'. His cast for Flora, I can't remember; I just remember thinking 'WTF?!'.**

**I do actually have some ideas for how I would like the film to go, but then again I want to be a film director (not even a famous one, just want to write and direct films and make ends meet). So should I post that on here, as a 'separate story' or on my profile because I want to know what you guys think of my idea… :/**

**My ideal cast would be: Bloom: Emma Stone, Stella: it was originally Kiera Knightley but I like Jennifer Lawerence better (and because I could make a point about Hollywood's pressure on people to look like sticks – being negative about it), Flora: Zoey Deutch, Victoria Justice or Chloe Bennet (who plays Skye in Marvel's Agents of SHIELD), Techna: Selena Gomez (because I think she's a good actress and I grew up with a British sounding Techna – see Monte Carlo for the accent. Plus a wig. Hollywood wigs looks real! Emily Browning's wig in Sucker Punch looked real but that cost $4,500), Musa: Malese Jow and Layla: Katarina Graham or Keke Palmer (I lean more towards Katarina Graham, personally).**

**For the nightmare imagery, watch the season 3, episode 8 "Dark Sky" (in the 4kids dub, I'm not sure what the Rai title is). I apologise for the fact that this has took me ages to write (although I have seen a fanfiction where the author published a half chapter a year after the first one was uploaded and it's been over a year now and the second half isn't up yet... Reading Alex Rider if you've ever seen that one), I've been distracted by digital painting :/ Fail. I'm also supposed to be editing, writing a load of my other stuff...Which I haven't; crap. I got a week off from college and have actually done bugger all.**

**Thanks for the shout-out Midnight, I'm glad you like it! I'm thinking of taking up your challenge but I'm trying to come up with a plot. I'm going to challenge you guys to try to come up with a theory on why the Winx have to transform (am I the only one who thinks they change the transformation with each season because they end up hating the new one?). I don't think any cartoon has ever had a reason for the transformations.**

**The psychology stuff about MDP in the chapter is true as far as I'm aware, because I'm working from memory on a case study about multiple personality disorder that I had to learn when I did A-Level psychology. There are two scenes in this chapter that are influenced by the Heroes character of Niki Saunders in season 1, if you've seen that season then you should be able to recognise the scenes. There's also a line from James Cameron's Dark Angel that I don't own.**

**Okay, I'm shutting up now and yes, I do have a tendency to ramble on in author's notes in case you can't tell.**

'_Don't close your eyes,_

_God knows what lies behind them._

_Don't turn out the light.'_

_Whisper by Evanescence_

'_I'm dangerous, so warning you._

_But you're not afraid of me, And I can't convince you._

_You don't know me, You think you got me._

_But you don't get me, You think you want me._

_But you don't know what you're getting into.'_

_You Don't Know Me by Elizabeth Gillies_

'_Can you stop the fire?  
Can you stand to fight her?  
You can't stop the fire,  
You won't say the words.'_

_Missing By Evanescence_

Loud voices echoed above her, a tormenting cackle. Black clouds swarmed around her.

"Na-na-naa!" The voices shrieked.

"You're such a little bitch!" Stella's voice echoed.

"You don't trust us?! But we're friends!" Flora's voice whispered in her ears.

"We are friends!" Bloom said, whirling around but she saw nothing but black sky and dark clouds.

"We promised to be together forever!" Stella wailed.

"We're logical to be doubtful of you, considering you've betrayed us twice now." Techna told her, voice emotion-less.

"It wasn't my fault, Techna! You know that!" She insisted, feeling guilt beginning to take hold of. Threatening to choke her and she swallowed.

The clouds cleared and above her she saw her five friends flying in a circle. They were moving rapidly, circling like a buzzard as they pointed and laughed at her.

"You're such a little bitch! Couldn't stand Sky's revelation and you ran! Fucking little bitch ran for the hills!" Musa howled with laughter.

Layla smirked. "Let the Trix take your power, they say. Just because you were too weak to keep it!"

"Or is that because that's what you secretly wanted? I thought we told each other everything!" Flora asked.

"Yeah, we were supposed to be friends forever!" Stella cried, a cackle in her throat.

"But friends don't try to kill each other!" Musa yelled, tears dripping down her face.

"I didn't mean it! You know that! I had no control!" Bloom screamed.

"Or did you actually have control? Some part of you?" Layla asked.

"Stop it guys or she'll go home crying to her fucking mother, like the little bitch she is!" Flora told the others.

Bloom bolted upright, her heart pounding violently as Kiko jumped down off her in fright. Flora caught him, hovering over her.

"Are you okay? You've been screaming for ten minutes, yelling all sorts about how something wasn't your fault. Do you want to talk about it?"

Bloom paused. Flora was one of the sweetest people ever, she was one of the few people she could actually trust.

"It was just about what happened last month, you guys blaming me." She confessed. Flora wrapped her arms around her, squeezing her tightly.

"I'm so sorry that ever had to go through that. We should have figured it out faster, I'm sorry." She pulled away, tears burning in her green eyes.

"That's okay. You can't blame yourself." Bloom held the nature fairy's hands. Flora manovered her hands out of Bloom's to wipe away her tears.

"Stages of guilt." She chuckled sadly.

"I'm sorry." Bloom whispered in reply.

"It's not your fault. You didn't know, we didn't know."

"You going to class?" Bloom chose her words carefully, if her friends felt as they couldn't trust her then she had to be careful with her words.

_They're right not to trust us. Look at we're capable of. How easy it would be snap this bitch's neck!_

_Stop it._

_If Lord Darkar had succeeded, would we have killed her? Would you have allowed that?_

_I'm wouldn't have allowed anything._

The dark voice cackled loudly, the sharpness of it rang painfully in her ears. _Layla, you know that you want her dead. Disapro, her too. Flora and Stella, you couldn't. Me, I'm not sure._

_Shut up! Just shut up!_

"Yeah, I'm sure Wizgiz will understand if we're late though."

* * *

Bloom couldn't concentrate on a word anyone was saying. She was too busy trying to ignore the voice whispering in her head. The other personality's violent yelling made her head throb so bad that she could feel a migraine coming on. Fuck.

She put her fingers to her temple and rubbed, squeezing her eyes shut for a second. When she opened them, white stars exploded in her vision. For fuck's sake. A hand was placed on her desk.

"Are you okay?"

It wasn't Wizgiz, it wasn't anyone in class. Go away! She was careful to not look directly at him, she didn't need anyone knowing about it.

_You're not real, you're not real. This is all in my head. You're not real, I'm just hallucinating. That's all it is. I'm just hallucinating. Hallucinating is one of the symptoms of MPD. So are my nightmares... You're not real. You're not real._

Her ears began to pound violently and she grabbed a handful of her red hair, fighting the urge to rip it out of her head.

"Bloom, you okay?" Flora's voice floated through the fog of ghostly whispers overpowering her ears.

"Let me out! LET ME OUT!"

"How do you know that I'm not real? You only know that I'm dead because that's what they told you. People tell you a lot of things."

You're not real, you're not real…

She shook her head and forced her mouth open, praying that she wouldn't vomit everywhere. "Can I be excused? Just for this lesson?"

"Of course." Wizgiz answered, concern lacing his voice.

"Thanks." She said, running from the classroom as fast as she possibly could. She ran straight to the quad, the walls a pale coloured blur, and almost collided with a pillar. Her nails gripped at the pink column as she tried to steady herself, tried to stop her legs from shaking and possibly collapsing beneath her. Her breathing shook as hot tears poured down her face. Abruptly dropping to the ground like a brick, her books skidded everywhere.

"For fuck's sake! Why?!" She scolded herself.

"Have you stopped to think that maybe it isn't your fault?! Darkar's smirking voice licked at her ears as he gathered up her textbooks and placed them next to her. Bloom ignored him, keeping up an internal chant of 'you're not real' inside her head.

"Because psychologically speaking, for MPD to occur something either extremely traumatic or traumatic things must happen repeatedly from an early age. Wonder what happened to you."

You're not real, you're not real.

"I'm going crazy." She whispered to herself, then she found her head being violently twisted to the side, words forced out of her mouth. Words that weren't hers.

"We already were."

"Stop it. Don't... Please, just leave me alone."

Head snapped upwards. "We're the same person, remember. I can't leave."

Tears began to burn her eyes again. "We're not the same person! We're not!"

A tiny voice met her ears. "Bloom?" Lockette. The pixie approached her, her pale blue wings fluttering as she hovered.

"We should tell her."

"Stop it!" She shook her head, pulling her knees to her chest. She turned to Lockette. "Don't pay attention to her."

"Pay attention to who?" Lockette's high pitched voice wavered, sounding like she was going to cry.

"God, you are such a fucking moron! Are you going to start crying?!"

"I said stop it!" Bloom cried, digging her nails into her wrist.

"What's going on?"

Her head twisted to the side. "What the fuck does it look like, you little goodie-goodie?"

"Bloom..."

"No. I'm sorry, it wasn't me. Please don't tell anyone about this! Please! I'm sorry, I'm sorry." Bloom pleaded as Lockette began to cry, flying away so fast she became a blue blur.

"You trust her? She's going to tell someone! What they going to do? Get us another fucking shrink? Cast a spell on us? Please, they're all so fucking stupid that the word special comes to mind."

"Shut up! Stop it!"

"Why should I? Nobody's going to understand. They'll shun us, we'll be 'Psycho' again."

A finger softly stroked her cheek, tucking her bangs behind her ear. Darkar stared at her, his eyes concerned.

"I never knew you had this problem. I've been watching you all year and I never saw it. You were good at hiding, my dear, even from yourself." He told her. She ignored him.

"I've gotta get out of here." She whispered to herself. She didn't go back to her dorm to pack, she didn't pick up her books. She just ran for the blue wing gates that gracefully opened as she headed towards them. She checked her phone, the bus to Magix was due in five minutes.

* * *

A brilliant light flashed very briefly on Fells Road. Being dusk on Earth, it could easily have been mistaken as a last ray of sunlight in the eyes of the oblivious.

Bloom knocked on the front door. A middle-aged, tired looking blonde man answered. In the same instant, he wrapped his arms around his daughter and hugged her tight. He saw the pain and tears in his only daughter's eyes.

"What's wrong, honey?" He asked, rubbing her back as he ushered her into the living room. She started to cry.

"It's back. Daddy-" Her voice broke. "It's back."

* * *

Vanessa Peters sighed as she closed the living door behind her. Her feet throbbed after her long day at work, near the end of the school year was always the worst and generally the most busiest because of all of the school proms. All the spoiled teenage girls who wanted corsages that matched their dresses but wanted to be surprised by their dates who couldn't care less. Thank God, Bloom was never like that. She and Mike weren't like that when they attended their prom, then again Vanessa wasn't particularly fond of the sexist, overly-exaggerated and pathetic night – never had been.

She kicked off her high heels and made a mental note to wear comfortable flat shoes tomorrow. And no more late hours for the next two months. She headed into the kitchen to see an exhausted-looking Mike, washing the pots. He motioned to the oven when he saw her enter.

"Your dinner's in there."

She nodded but frowned. "Are you okay?"

"Me? Yeah, I'm fine... But Bloom isn't."

"What did you speak to her? What's wrong?" Her mind created all kinds of bizarre scenearios.

"She's in her room, fast asleep. She's worn out. She could barely stand up by the time she finished explaining. The first thing she said scared the hell out of me. 'It's back. Daddy, it's back'." He answered.

"What? I thought it went away! How – What - " The memories of Bloom's younger years took over, it scared the living daylights out of her.

"You may need to sit down for this bit." He told her. Vanessa sat down at the table, Mike placed his dish cloth on the side and sat down opposite her.

"She said that it's happened again because something happened last month. Apparently the guy that they were trying to stop, kidnapped her. She said he put a spell on her to turn her evil."

"Those actually exist?!"

* * *

Faragonda and Saladin hovered over her, shining daggers in their hands as they neared her. Hot flames burned around them, the dark night glittered with stars above her.

"We can't trust you." Saladin told her.

"We never could." Faragonda said, her voice filled with disgust. "This has nothing to do with Darkar."

"Of course, you didn't seem to fight him all that much. Maybe that's what you wanted." Saladin agreed.

Heart pounding violently, her eyes snapped open. Bright daylight greeted Bloom that morning. Waking up in her old room, worlds away from the problems of Magix and that universe felt like there was a lot less pressure on her so was the strange quiet in her head. She shoved her covers back, got dressed and headed down to get breakfast.

"Morning, mom." She greeted her dark-haired adoptive mother who smiled warmly at her.

"Morning." Vanessa replied, moving the finished pancake onto a plate. She poured some more batter into the pan and pushed the plate towards Bloom. "Eat." She commanded. Bloom smiled as she did. It felt nice to be part of a family again. When she had finished eating, she placed her fork down and looked at her mother. "Mom, I want to go see Dr. Saunders again. Do you still have the number?"

"Of course. I'll go give her a ring." She replied, grabbing the phone from the hook. "Thanks."

Her mother paused. "Your dad told about that guy and what he did to you."

"It scared me." She admitted for the first time. "It scared the hell out of me. It was like falling asleep, or being put to sleep in a hospital... And when I woke up, my friends were almost dead in a place I didn't recognise. Sky was almost dead. And I had done it." She began to cry again, curling herself into a ball on the chair. Her pale hands gripping her red roots as she felt her suppressed sadness and guilt over-whelm her. "Their blood is on my hands!"She sobbed. "My friends' blood... I almost killed my friends! And I'm scared that I'm going to do it again."

Her mother hugged her tightly. "Shh, it's going to be okay, I promise. I'll go ring Dr. Saunders now." She said, heading into the living room.

"Morning sunshine!" Mike called, coming down the stairs.

"Dressed for the day, huh?" She asked as she wiped away her tears, seeing the entire fire fighters uniform. He winked and kissed her head. He had to have heard her.

"Yup, unlike you in your SpongeBob PJs. We've been getting a surprising amount of forest fires this month."

"Really? Is it because of the drought?"

"Do you keep up with our weather and news?" He asked, chuckling lightly. "You did know all about that missing cow a few weeks ago."

Vanessa came back into the kitchen, she kissed Mike on the cheek and placed the phone on the counter.

"She said that you can go whenever you want and she'll see you as soon as she can."

* * *

Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick went the metronome. Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick... She kept her eyes on small piece of mirror at the top of the dial, following it with her eyes as she tried to ignore Dr. Saunders piercing gaze from opposite her. She was tall woman, with impossibly straight black hair all pinned up on top of her head. Her deep-set brown eyes studied her. She possessed a surprising similarity to Layla, apart from a few notable differences in age, posture and behaviour. They both shared the same lip and nose shape, neither of them really joked around.

"It sounds like I've got a bomb in head and it's about to go off." Bloom growled out.

"I know it's hard but you have to focus on the mirror. You have to try to relax yourself and your mind." Dr. Saunders repeated again.

"I can't relax! How can I? You're trying to bring her out, you're actively trying to bring her out!" She snapped. "She's dangerous and insane! I've told you that, I've told you over and over! She could hurt you, she could do a lot more than that!"

"Really?" Dr. Saunders asked, raising a dark perfectly-shaped-and-plucked eyebrow. "Show me. I want you to show me."

Bloom tried to raise her hands, she didn't get very far. Her hands were hand-cuffed to the table with reinforced steel. She gave the doctor a look. "You put these on for a reason."

"Yes, I did. That's because you asked me to. Those could an elephant in that chair. I may be a psychiatrist but don't think I can't use that Taser."

"I thought we agreed that the goal was to get rid of her." Bloom insisted, moving her head to flick her bangs out of her face.

"No, the goal is to bring your two halves to a healthy middle, to have a unified and whole you instead of the two aspects at war that you are now." Dr. Saunders said. Bloom looked down her lap, shaking her head.

"I don't want to be a part of her. I don't want her to be a part of me." She insisted, her bangs falling in front of her eyes again.

"Then you'll be like this for the rest of your life. You'll be in pain, you'll be suffering and you'll have black-outs again because she will get out again."

Bloom sighed and leaned back in her chair, blowing her bangs out of her face. Should have known... Which was better? Living like this for the rest of her life or having no voices in her head, none of the pain, none of the black-outs... There was no competition she supposed.

"Alright, fine. How do we do this?"

"It's like we talked about. Focus on your reflection and breathe."

She stared at the reflection on the metronome. Her eyes had dark bags underneath them, her hair was a mess and was as wild as usual, her skin even more pale causing her freckles to stand out just a bit more.

"It's fine to let your mind wander."

Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick... Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick...

"My friend, Musa, has one of these. She does her homework to it."

"She plays the piano?"

"Piano, concert flute, guitar, violin, bass, drums, clarinet... I think she plays every instrument known to man."

"What about you? Do you play?"

She snorted. "Hardly. My mom tried to get me to learn piano when I was younger but I could never quite get it." A wistful smile appeared on her face for a moment before it disappeared incredibly abruptly.

"No, but the teacher never gave us the fucking time of day, really."

Dr. Saunders leaned forward, her interlaced fingers now resting on the table. "So... What do I call you?"

"You don't call me anything, I don't want anything from you apart from hearing you scream." The girl smiled sinisterly as smoke rose from the handcuffs. Brilliant orange flames licked at her wrists, burning away the handcuffs.

Dr. Saunders went to grab the Taser. The girl placed her hand on top of the doctors. She let slip a dark, girlish giggle.

"You sound have listened to the little bitch!"

* * *

Tick... Tick... Tick... Tick... Nothing...

Bloom slowly opened her eyes, scared of what she would see. The last thing she remembered was talking about her shitty piano lessons. She let lose a tiny whimper and slowly sat up. Where was she? Dr. Saunders office... Laid down on the floor, against the wall that were glowing with a familiar looking sound-proofing spell (she'd seen in whenever Musa was practicing in her room). She pulled herself up.

"...Dr. Saunders?" She asked. No answer. "D-Dr. Saunders?" She asked a little louder. Still nothing. The table and chair was on the floor, their legs pointed towards the door behind her. Bloom peered over and shoved her knuckles into her mouth, biting down hard to stop herself from screaming. The skin of her legs had been partially peeled off, the muscles inside burnt. Her arms were twisted at unnatural angles, her finger broken and almost twisted off. The fingernails burnt off, the arms broken at the elbows. Chunks of hair burnt, teeth ripped out, a single eye taken – thrown over the corner, judging by the blood. Patches of skin on her stomach ripped off and the insides burned black.

"No." She whispered. "No, No!" She began to cry again. "I tried to tell you. I tried to tell you!"

She ran.

She ran and ran, she knew the path home well even after all this time. The soft breeze made her eyes tear up. She swallowed heavily, and just ran ignoring everything especially Mitzi's cry of "Hey, look Psycho's back from reform school! Looks like she got kicked out again!"

She burst through the door, falling onto the carpet.

"Bloom!" Stella's voice met her ears. She looked up to see the concerned faces of the rest of the Winx Club. Shit.

"You followed me." She said, her voice hollow. Stella put her hands on her hips.

"Well, yes duh! What did you expect?"

"I just wanted to be left alone."

"Why? What's wrong?"Flora asked.

"What's wrong? What's wrong?! A better question would be what's right." She answered as her despair choked her, anger pounded through her veins. How could they not understand? Could they not see how much last month had affected her? Could they not see how sad she was? Or did they just not care?

She sobbed, her hands curling into fists. "I couldn't handle it! Everyone spread rumours and they made their little side comments when you couldn't hear! They called me everything from 'bitch' to 'traitor' to 'whore'. I refuse to sit back and take that from bunch pathetic girls who are nothing but prejudiced cowards!

"It feels like don't trust me, you've all kept your distance and don't really speak to me. Everyone whispered and stared, even the fucking teachers!"  
Silence.

"I'm so tired and stressed. I'm going to bed. Night." She said to her parents and running up the stairs. A soft 'night' followed her up.

* * *

The bedroom in her dream was lit by burning flames. A red-headed woman clutched a small baby (not even a year old) to her chest and turned away from the closed door. She placed the baby into the crib into front of her and bent down.

"You be safe, okay? Remember I love you. Mama loves you and daddy loves you. I want you to remember that, sweetheart." The woman whispered, her fingers stroking the baby's tear stained cheek through the wooden bars.

The door was blasted off of its hinges. Faragonda stood in the threshold, at least a seventeen years younger version of her, her hands glowing with power.

"Please don't." The woman whispered. "Please, just leave her alone. She hasn't done anything!"

"I'm afraid it's not that simple. We can't take that chance. She might do something, she become that we don't want her to and we can't have that. Not with her power."  
Saladin and Griffin walked calmly through the threshold.

"The husband's been taken care of." Saladin told the old fairy.

"Good." She said. The woman lunged at Faragonda but Saladin and Griffin surged forward, catching and restraining her. Faragonda walked around them and took the baby out of the crib, who began to cry and wail.

"No!" The woman screamed as she began to sob. "Don't take my baby! Don't take my baby! Please, she hasn't done anything! Please! Please!"

The baby girl was kept in the same room was the mother, as the women's powers were violently ripped from her and she was excruciatingly gutted. Her bloodied face and empty eyes staring out at the child, her torso lacerated open. The baby could only stare and mumble baby noises, presumably the equivalent of 'mama?' by the child's expression.

Bloom's eyes snapped open, her cheeks wet with tears. She groaned and sat up. How did she get over to her desk? Had she sleep-walked? That would also explain the pencil in her hand. Wait, pencil? The side of her hand was grey. She grabbed the piece of paper on the desk. She had drawn the women from her dream. Who was she? Why was she dreaming of her? Why had Faragonda killed her? They had to have been a good reason, right? Right?

As she stared at the piece of paper, it began to glow purple. Sharp, jagged words appeared by themselves, written by an unknown hand. _You want to know who this is? Meet me at the park at 11:30, the third picnic table_. It could be a trap, it could be Darkar… It could be the Trix! There was only one way to find out.

* * *

Bloom checked the time on her phone again. It was now 11:30. There was no sign of anyone apart from a few dogs that was chasing a stick thrown by a seven year old boy.

"Excuse me?" An unfamiliar, definitely male, voice said from behind. "You're Bloom Peters, correct?"

She turned around. There was something familiar about him, the mysterious and brooding aura that he had, that she couldn't place. He looked about early to mid 20s. Pale with a broad forehead, angular jawline, deep-set green eyes and a straight nose. His hair was dark brown and straight but gelled into spikes. Lean, 5'11 and wearing a pair of jeans and a Resident Evil 'Umbrella Corporation' t-shirt.

_I like him._

"Yeah." She answered, thrown off-balance by the casual and normal-ness of him. "Who are you?"

"My name is Gabriel Reaves, I'm a clairvoyant." He answered.

"Look, if you're after money then-"

He interrupted sharply. "No, I'm not. I promise. You drew a picture in your sleep and you wanted to know who it was."

"You saw me draw it?"

"Correct." He smiled. "Her name was Rosario Candlearia, she was a duchess and a friend. She was one of those people that you couldn't help but like. She was down to earth, friendly but she had a massive temper that I used to find myself on the other end of quite a few times when I was growing up."

"How old are you?" Bloom asked, biting her lip and wondering if this Rosario was so good and nice, why did Faragonda kill her?

"Hasn't anyone ever told you that it's rude to ask? I'm 31, I know I look young."

"Hell, yeah." It slipped out but Gabriel smiled at her.

"Did you see her baby?" He asked. She nodded.

"What happened to her? It sounded like they killed her."

"They didn't. Everyone who actually knows the story thinks that they did, they didn't. They killed Rosario and her husband because of the power that the child was born with. They were going to kill the baby but it was too good of an opportunity to pass up. They took her instead, placed her with a light family to be raised. I don't know what happened after that. I should have been able to help them!" He growled. "But I saw it through remote viewing. I couldn't move, I couldn't speak. I could do nothing but sit watch as my best friend and her husband were slaughtered like animals!"

"Light? You mean they were dark? That's why they were killed?"

Gabriel shook his head and smiled wistfully. "No. They may have lived in Shadowhaunt but they were neutral. Shadowhaunt was different before Darkar took over. It taught light and dark ways, allowed people to actually choose their path. Unlike this 'light' side, it gives you the illusion of choice where you conform to what they want or you're shunned and are automatically dark; an enemy." He sighed. "The place that you've seen, it's all been these card-board cut out bad-guys and good guys. Over and over… Royal leaders and propaganda. It's just the same story, played out over and over. The same concept played out by brain-washed people with scripted personalities made by conformation… They make everyone so clichéd and obvious, what you see is what you get. Bad looks bad, wears dark colours, lives in dark places. Light is good, light is light coloured." He paused. "Sorry, that was a bit of a rant."

_I really like him._

_For God's sake, shut up!_

_Why? You don't._

_Haven't you done enough?!_

"It's fine. It's nice to hear someone with a similar point of view." She told him, finally glad to say her real opinion.

"But yeah, Shadowhaunt used to allow you to actually choose your side, allowed everyone to marry. Age, race, sex, status and job never mattered. It was a beacon of freedom. The light don't have that, the light don't teach you that because they want you to be prejudiced against Shadowhaunt. Half of writing history is hiding the truth. But Darkar made it what it is today. Even as a child, he had his own agenda. He visited the darkest places in the universe and enjoyed them. He turned Shadowhaunt into one of those places, it's completely different now."

Bloom paused. "You sound like know him, like personally… What was Darkar's name before he became Darkar?"

Gabriel smiled ruefully. "Darkar is actually our last name. I had to change it to be able to live in Magix, of course. But his first name is actually Christian. Completely ironic as it turned out."

"Wait, you two are related?" She had no idea Darkar ever had a family and wasn't just spawned from darkness and evil, if she was being honest.

"Yeah. Brothers. He's older by two years. Christian and Gabriel, the two heirs to the throne of Shadowhaunt – one light, one dark. It's surprisingly biblical. I never wanted the throne, I was actually interested in ruling or political games or anything."

Now she knew why he seemed familiar. She bit her bottom lip. "I have this problem. A psychologist diagnoised it was multiple personality disorder-"

"No, there's no actual other personality really. It's both you, two sides at war and it's manifesting itself as a form of MPD. Of course earth therapy can't help."

"It's been that way forever. For as long as I can remember." She admitted timdly.

"Maybe something happened to you as a kid, something horrific and traumatic that caused your brain to develop this other side to 'absorb' those memories to protect you. It's caused you to be constantly at war with yourself because of that and because you don't truly know who you are."

She hung her head. "I know who I am. Bloom Peters, adoptive daughter of Vanessa and Mike Peters. Biological daughter of Oritel and Miriam, Princess of Sparx Domino."

Gabriel studied her for a moment. "Do you believe that? Does your subconscious believe that or are you just believing what everyone tells you?"

"No." She insisted. "I remember Sparx, I've had dreams about it. I have the Dragon Fire inside me! The royal family of Sparx are the keepers of the fire."

He sighed. "I can only suggest that you look back even further."

'_Secrets are made to be found out with time.'_

_Charles Sanford_

'_Half of writing history is hiding the truth.'_

_Captain Malcolm Reynolds (Nathan Fillion)_

**Edit: 04/11/13 - Figured out the line breaks! Sorry for how it was before. I always leave two lines in the word document but they always seem to disappear when I upload it!**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: So I was reading 'Magic Winx! Fanfictionix!' by Akela Victoire. It takes the piss out of the most clichéd plots in the Winx Club fanfiction. One of the topics was falling in love with the enemy (most of the time, it is apparently because the author thought the two would look hot together) and I just thought 'shit, I hope people don't think that about mine'. Because I actually have two reasons (maybe one and a half, I'm still a bit sketchy on how I'm going to get the second one to play out), one is actually based off of canon information; at least information provided in the Rai version; it's a little quote by Darkar. Still worried about my characterisation of the characters, hope they aren't flat, boring or OOC.**

**Also, I will mention that a cool cross-over (even if the time zones are way off for the fanfiction to happen, I still like it. And Darkar's in it, who is my favourite Winx villain. I've got my fingers crossed for Dark Bloom making a reappearance in it) is 'Winx to Hogwarts' by MidnightEden234.**

**PierceTheVeil: I'm glad that you like the psychological aspect, I wasn't sure how people would take it. Your theory isn't totally crazy! Certainly original, you should try it, and way better than BloomxValtor fanfics. Sorry if I just offended anyone but I don't like them. I haven't heard 'Fire' but 'Animal', I was going to use that later on. But songs have more than one verse! So song suggestion credit of 'Animal I have become' goes to PierceTheVeil. I'm still thinking about Dark Tecna but I do have a plot in mind – it would be just a one-shot though. I like rambly and crazy reviews, lets me know that people like my stuff ;) Is it weird that I like listening to the transformation songs from the first movie onwards? They're catchy!**

**Some parts of this fan fiction (including last chapter) are influenced by an additional scene in the Nickelodeon special of season 2 – there is a scene added where Darkar watches over Bloom. Also it is Marion, right? That's what I saw on the wiki page but isn't spelt in Miriam in one episode? So I'm not sure. The large italic part is a flashback, not a dream. Also why does Bloom's empathy never come back? Why didn't it warn her about Sky, the Trix or Diaspro? It was in there for one or two episodes and never seen again, like Damon with the crow and mist in Vampire Diaries. Some of the dialogue near the end is a mix of the lines from season 2, episode 19 in the Rai version and in the 4Kids dub. Also line from the pilot of Firefly is right at the end.**

'_I'm suffocating,_

_I can't breathe._

_Let me out of this cage,_

_I'm not gonna hold back._

_Gonna break these chains!_

_I'm taking control now,_

_Gonna give ya something to talk about._

_It's another side of me,_

_I'm acting out.'_

_Acting Out by Ashley Tisdale_

'_Falling to pieces,_

_Count me in._

_Violent,_

_Let's begin._

_Feeding to sickness,_

_How do I simplify._

_The enemy's on the way,'_

_Unknown Soldier by Breaking Benjamin_

'_Somebody get me through this nightmare,_

_I can't control myself._

_So what if you can see,_

_The darkest side of me._

_No-one will never change,_

_This animal that I have become._

_Help me believe it's not the real me,_

_Somebody help me tame this animal.'_

_Animal I Have Become by Three Days Grace_

"So where did you find this ritual?" Bloom asked Gabriel, as she picked up a crystal and held it up to the lights in the spare room of Mike and Vanessa's house. All of the furniture had been shoved in the corners of the room, all the dusk cleaned up. The wooden floor was decorated with a large circle made of rock salt.

"In one of my books. One of the dark magic ones." He answered. "Most magic requires thoughts, will and magic. Then there are my brother's rituals, the oldest and very traditional dark magic. After that, is this type; they're a little different. They require the use of herbs and crystals; natural things to draw power from. Whoever said dark magic isn't natural? It's too dangerous to use the Dragon Fire to draw from, because most people's magic is like another entity inside them but people like you and my brother, it's different. It's a part of you, interweaved with your life force. Nobody can take your powers from either of you."

She nodded, looking over all of the objects on the table. She clicked her finger and a flame sparked to life; she lit the candles. "So what's with all the stuff?"

"Pass me that those crystals." Gabriel pointed to a collection of purple crystals, they radiated a purple light that scattered like sun on an ocean floor. She passed them to him. "These are amethysts. They help increase spiritual awareness."

He paced over to the north of the room, counting out the steps. He placed them on the ground, at the top of the salt circle. "Pass me a candle."

She did.

"Candles bring particular energies and magic. Yellow is associated with memory, understanding and comprehension."

He placed it half a foot away from the handful of amethysts, on the outside of the circle. "Okay, those clear stones next."

The stones were clear with lines of light. They scattered light like a diamond. "I know what these are. Clear quartz." Bloom said, handing him the pebble-sized crystals. Gabriel nodded.

"They're a key ingredient. They help people to be released from the past, in this case by viewing it." He told her as he placed them on the rock salt, half a foot away from the lit candle, pointing to the east. Her eyes landed on the very meretricious ring on his finger. It glowed in the fire light, green light being cast out of it.

"What's with the ring?" She questioned, imagining Stella's reaction if she ever saw it. She'd probably try to burn it.

"Huh? Oh, this gaudy thing. It's an emerald, related to precognition. Sometimes I think my dad meant it as a joke… But it was the last thing that he gave to me before he passed away." Gabriel answered, his green eyes wistful.

"Sorry."

"Don't be. He died peacefully, in his sleep. I was twenty one. Christian took the throne a few weeks later after the funeral." He said, walking over to her and the table.

"What about your mother? Surely, she could have taken it for a while."

Gabriel chuckled darkly as he picked up a handful of seemingly blue stones and another candle; the crystals looked like the ocean floor. All blue and metallic green, rainbow light defused from it. Once again, he placed the lit candle half a foot away from the quartz on the outside of the circle. "My mother died giving birth to me." He sighed. "People think it's bad when boys don't have a father but it's even worse when you don't have a mother. My father was strict, he wasn't like a father. He was like a military officer yet that didn't mean that I didn't want his approval. Everyone used to tell me stories about how my mother was a kind and caring woman, and all I had ever wanted was to see my mother. Just once, but no. I didn't get along with my father, I was too soft. He blamed my mother's death for that. I just wanted to see my mother, to hug her… I always went to her grave when I was upset. Sometimes, it felt like she was there, helping me and comforting me but I'm not a necromancer so I'll never know." Gabriel was freely crying now. He shook his head and wiped his tears away. "Time and a place for crying, preparing for a ritual isn't one of them."

"But-" Bloom started to say, unable to stop her concern.

"Don't worry. I'll be fine, her grave still helps. How's er, how's the voice?" He asked, swallowing thickly as he placed the blue stones half a foot away from the last candle, on top of the salt.

"Strangely quiet. I'm not used to the quiet." She answered.

"It's because the past is something you both need, you both need to understand and she's content in waiting for that. Those-" he coughed, "those are opals. They help with psychic visions and the second sight, they represent fire as well. Can you put that last lot of crystals there?" He asked, pointing directly opposite the quartz, a point that faced the west. He headed over to the table and picked up the last two candles. He placed one directly in-between the opals and where Bloom was placing the dark blue stones and another in-between the amethysts and dark blue stones. Both were on the outside of the salt.

The dark blue stones were a beautifully rich blue colour and reflected blue and black light.

"That's lapis lazuli. Helps to stimulate truth and psychic awareness."

"So what's with the shape?" To her, it all created the image of a star inside a circle inside her head.

"It creates a pentagram."

"I thought that was devil worship."

"Knew that was coming. On Earth, the wiccans and pagans blame Hollywood for that belief. But no, the pentagram is a symbol of the pagan Goddess, or in the realms, a symbol of the Great Dragon; also a Goddess. But most people have forgotten about it because it's not used in the festivals and the flame worship stuff which is what most people here know about. I think they felt it was too close to Shadow Worship so they ended up phasing it out, in basic terms." He shrugged. "Pass me two of those white plants and keep two."

She passed him them. "What are we doing with these?"

"Burn them. One to a corner." He replied, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a lighter that he flicked open.

Bloom clicked her fingers, placing the flame on the white leaves. She put one into the stone bowl in the closest corner and heading over to the other one. "And this is?"

"You're curious, aren't you? They say curiosity killed the cat." Gabriel countered, placing one of his plants into another of the stone bowls. She grinned back.

"Satisfaction brought it back." She told him, dropping the other into the basin.

Gabriel placed his last one in the final dish. "White sage, used to purify places. We have to purify the room before we can begin the ritual. This isn't a set ritual place where rituals are usually done so anything could happen if we didn't."

"Set religious place?"

"Yeah. It's believed that the Dragon created specific places to be used for rituals. Every city, town or village has at least one because that's what they're built around. Most people just celebrate the festivals now because of the whole pentagram thing. We're almost done. You need to get into the middle of the circle. Don't touch anything; sit or lay down because that's what you'll be doing when the spell begins."

She hopped over the white line and sat down, with her legs crossed like a child's, in the middle of the circle. Gabriel picked up the last thing on the table. Another stone bowl, this one engraved with various dark and light symbols. He flicked his lighter and placed it to whatever was in there. The smell of burning plants began to waft around the room.

"This is belladonna, which you should never, ever eat because it's deadly poisonous and you shouldn't touch it really anyway, the poison can be absorbed through the skin. People have died using this so it's not recommended but there was a spell in the ritual that allowed use to use it safely. It's used to achieve altered states of mind. Also Fern Leaf, for mental clarity, and willow. Willow is used for divination." He explained and then paused, fiddling with his ring. "I don't know what you'll see. It's unpredictable. It be your happiest, sweetest memory ever or your darkest, most fucked up one. Just be prepared because once this is started, I can't do anything to help you. Like you can't wake people who sleep-walk or have nightmares or schizophrenics in the middle of their hallucinations. You have to remember that you can't change what you see because it's already happened. It isn't real. And rituals can feel weird the first time. Like sex."

"Like sex?" She snorted at the comparison. "This isn't my first ritual."

Images of the fake Professor Avalon's mock rituals and Darkar's ritual appeared and she shook her head, desperate to rid of the images of floating purple orbs, strange languages and symbols and burning crystals. "It's complicated… And a long story."

"We got time later. Besides, I love long stories, they're the best. They're the ones that keep you awake at night and make you wonder."

"You're so weird."

"Now you sound like my brother. So you ready?"

"Ready as I'll ever be." She replied, steeling herself for anything and everything.

Light began to glow in Gabriel's hands. "Peregrinatione memoriam praeteritorum, videat veritatem," he chanted. "Peregrinatione memoriam praeteritorum, videat veritatem."

The light in the crystals got brighter, more intense. The flames shot up. Bloom's vision began to spin and she began to feel sick.

"Peregrinatione memoriam praeteritorum, videat veritatem. Peregrinatione memoriam praeteritorum, videat veritatem."

The world righted itself but the room wasn't the spare one in the house. It was opulent, bright and glittering. Also huge with a sweeping balcony. Outside, Bloom could see a beautiful landscape of grass, rolling hills, jewel coloured flowers as far as the eye could see, trees with plaited trunks. Large mountains stood proudly in the distance.

The room itself was decorated with pale stones and light marble. Two gold and bronze glided thrones sat side by side on a dais at the back of the room, directly in the middle of the pale green painted wall. Thousands of unlit candles decorated the edges of the expansive hall, a domed ceiling made of stained glass created a swirling pattern around a brilliant orange dragon breathing red flames. The scintillating mosaic reflected on the marble floor, through the mammoth of a gold-glided candelabrum.

A young woman sat on one of the thrones – her red hair piled up on top of her head, moulded around her gold, jewel-encrusted crown, loose artificial curls rested on her shoulders. Her skin was pale but not as pale as Bloom's and she had no freckles and her almond shaped eyes were a brilliant shade of emerald. She was dressed in a pale outfit with puffy, pink sleeves covering her forearms; the Sparxian royal family crest on the clasp of her attire. There was no doubting who this woman was. Queen Marion of Sparx Domino. Her biological mother.

Studying the woman up close, Bloom hypothesised she could be no more than twenty-six, when she compared Daphne's and Marion's ages. They didn't look much alike aside from the red hair and pale skin; where Marion's chin was sharp and pointed, Bloom's was soft and rounded. Marion had upturned nose, her own nose had a slender bridge and straight, no upturned tip. Their eyes were completely different; the colour and the shape. Marion's were emerald green, almond-shaped but small. Bloom's were wide, had a slight cat-look shape to them. She had bow-shaped lips, Marion had full. She had freckles, her mother didn't. Maybe she looked more like her father.

There was a woman talking to Marion, she was easy to recognise. Ms. Faragonda.

"How are things getting along?" She asked. Marion sighed, glancing over at the baby in Daphne's arms. Daphne was showing the infant – her – the golden ribbons of light wrapping around her fingers.

"Awkward." The woman replied. "It's like she knows."

"She's not even a year old. Don't be preposterous." Faragonda chided her. Marion's shoulders slumped against her throne.

"She's bonded with Daphne, she likes her but whenever we go to pick her up or feed her or-or anything, all she does is cry."

"Just give it time, she'll adjust and forget them. We'll have nothing to worry about. Nobody remembers anything about the first five years of their life."

"It was necessary." The Queen of Sparx told the old woman in front of her. "It was necessary. The Dragon has gifted anyone with the Fire since my great-great grandmother – at least, nobody who belonged this family biologically, where it rightfully belongs."

"The Flame is only gifted once a century remember? When the Dragon chooses a vessel." Faragonda interlaced her fingers. Marion scowled.

"I know the lore." She paused. "The Shadow Lord, how are things going with him?"

"Not good. The Company are trying to stop him but he has powerful assets, he's appeared to have recruited the Primeval Witches and their 'son'."

"Do we have any idea what he wants?"

Faragonda shrugged. "There are a million possibilities; power, revenge, boredom."

The opulent throne room began to spin again, becoming a dizzy pale colour blur. Bloom felt sick and she closed her eyes, squeezing her eyes shut so tight she began to feel light-headed.

The new scene before her was a much smaller, more intimate one. A tired looking young woman was holding a baby that was a few weeks old. She had dark shadows underneath her cyan eyes, her skin deathly pale, making her freckles stand out even more. She had the same chin as Bloom, the same cat-like shape to her eyes, the same nose.

A fire blazed in the stone hearth, making the woman seem even more pale and the shadows even more prominent, as she tickled the infant's stomach, causing her to giggle loudly. The living room wasn't even the size of her dorm room, decorated with only a sofa, the fireplace and a switched off TV on the wall.

"Rockabye baby on the tree top, when the wind blows the cradle will rock." The woman sang, as she continued to tickle the baby. The young woman wasn't a good singer but the love in the woman's voice sounded sweet nonetheless.

Everything felt strangely peaceful and quiet to Bloom. Then a single sharp knock at the door made her jump. The baby didn't cry at the noise but turned her head to where the noise came from and began to babble. The woman laughed tiredly as she got up and headed to the front door. Bloom couldn't see who it was but the woman bowed, the baby peeking over the woman's shoulder; looking right through her, and the red-headed young woman made a come in gesture. She closed the door behind the man.

He was an athletic-looking old man like an aged military officer, his hair was a steel coloured grey but his eyebrows were black, his eyes green. Gabriel and Darkar's father.

"How are you, Rosario?" The old king asked gently.

"I'm fine, thank you... Is this a social visit?"

"Sort of... How is Ibraham? And the baby?"

Rosario smiled gently as she absent-mindedly stroked the infants red tuffs of hair. "He's at work, not as tired as me. He's doing fine. She's doing great, I can't believe how she's coming along. She was so cold when she came out but the mid-wife placed her in the fire!" Rosario's cyan eyes were incredibly wide, the flames in the hearth reflected in them before she chuckled lightly. "I screamed at her. She told me that she was just warming her up, that that was the procedure."

This certainly surprised the king, judging by his expression. He raised a dark eyebrow. "Really? That's interesting, really interesting... Actually, I'm here about your maternity leave."

"I thought being a duchess was a noble blood thing, not something you could take a break from."

"You've just had a baby, of course you can. The court have agreed with me, we're giving you paid leave until this little one is schooling age. Five, I believe?"

Rosario nodded. "Thank you, sir."

The world began to spin again. Dizzingly, violently. Bloom was going to be sick, she was going to faint. Her heart was pounding so strongly that she felt each pulse in the tips of her toes and fingers. She closed her eyes and then they snapped open again. A familiar looking ceiling swam into view before it solidified. Strong hands on her, helping her up. Gabriel.

Bloom groaned. "Fuck."

"What happened?" Gabriel questioned.

_We can trust him!_

_I know but I'm not sure if I want to tell him._

* * *

"So, basically I still have no clue." Bloom sighed, lazily swinging her leg as she raised a glass of water to her lips.

"I think you do." Gabriel told her, placing his glass down on Vanessa's kitchen counter. "I think that you have two and two but you need to come up with four."

She nodded, deep in thought but quickly bought of it by a sudden, rapid knocking. Pounding on the front door with no sign of stopping anytime soon. Who would knock like that?

She ran to the front door, coming face to face with a teenage boy with shaggy, messy blonde hair.

"Sky, what are you doing here?" She asked in surprise, allowing him in.

"I was worried-" He started to say but stopped abruptly as his blue eyes landed on Gabriel. "Who are you?"

"Gabriel Reaves and I think it's time I was going. You'll tell your dad that I was looking for him?"

_Huh?_

_You moron! It's an excuse! You haven't recognised the look on Sky's face?!_

"Oh, sure." She replied. "I'll get him to call you when he gets in."

"Thanks. I'll see you later." Gabriel said, heading out of the back door that he closed behind him. Sky was silent for a moment.

"Why was he here?"

"He just said, he was looking for my dad. Gabriel's a friend of my parents."

_Nice, not a complete lie._ The voice in the back of her head complemented her.

_Huh?_

"I don't like him." Sky stated. "I don't trust him."

_You don't even know him!_

"Sky... Are you jealous?" She asked, unable to believe it.

"What?! No! No, I'm not jealous?"

"You don't trust me." Bloom stated as the front door swung open. Mike and Vanessa walked in, carrying heavy looking grocery bags.

"No, it's not that! It's just- it's just-" He struggled to come up with an answer.

_We both knew it. We both knew that he didn't trust us. Why else has he been so distant?_

"Just leave me alone." Bloom told him and started to walk away but Sky grabbed her wrist. Unbelievable. She pulled her wrist from his grasp, all of her anger from the past month and a half bubbling and rapidly coming to the surface. "Just leave me alone!" She yelled, slamming the kitchen-living-room door shut in his face. As she ran upstairs, she dimly heard Mike questioning Sky and light footsteps following her up.

When she got to her bedroom, she threw herself down onto the bed and began to cry.

"Shh." Vanessa's voice floated to her ears as she felt her mother wrap her arms around her in a tight hug.

"He doesn't trust me." She sobbed. "I've always trusted him! Always! Even when I forgave him for lying about who he was and Diaspro!"

Her mother stroked her red hair. "I know, baby, I know."

"He told he wouldn't let me go! When-when Darkar..." She broke off in tears, her voice splintered. "He said he wouldn't let me go."

* * *

Bloom's eyes snapped open, her mind burning with a realisation as her sleepy eyes focused on her night-darkened bedroom. She looked at her clock. A luminescent green '4:32am' blinked at her. How could she not have seen it? Rosario was her biological mother. A Shadowhaunt Duchess was her mother, the Trix's prank had been right. She was a witch.

She leaned down and groped around the carpeted floor for her phone charger. After half a minute, she found it and pulled the cord closer to her. She grabbed the phone and rang her newest number. What time would it be in Magix? Around lunch time?

"Hello?" Gabriel's voice answered.

"Rosario's my mother?! And you neglected to tell me?!" She questioned angrily. Gabriel sighed on the other end.

"The mind has to figure things out on its own. It has to process things on its own, if it doesn't get that change, it'll just be unable to process it and forget it."

"My mother is from Shadowhaunt! I'm a witch!" Bloom sobbed.

"Have you been listening to a word that I've been saying? Everyone has a choice, being born in Shadowhaunt doesn't automatically make you dark. Your mother was a wonderful person, she was from Shadowhaunt, yes but that doesn't change anything. When it came to these dark and light concepts, your parents were neutral; that sort of thing didn't matter to her. Rosario helped people, fed the homeless and stopped things from being destroyed. She was a kind woman, devoted to religion. She prayed to the Dragon every night. She performed all the rituals, visited the temple every holiday and festivals.

"The sacred place in Shadowhaunt is the only place that grows any plant life now. There's a great willow tree right in the centre, flowers everywhere... Mourning for Rosario." Gabriel paused. "A few weeks after she married your father, the doctors rang her and asked her to come in. The news was devastating to her, her womb wasn't the right shape for a child. The next week, she was pregnant. The doctors did a test – her womb had been altered somehow, someone had changed the shape."

"The Great Dragon." She whispered.

"Yes. Rosario was over-joyed at the fact that she was having you. She never asked the doctors about your gender or your power – it didn't matter to her. When it came to seven months, she went on a pilgrimage across all of the realms – praying in every temple as she made her way to Sparx, the Dragon's resting place to thank her. It was the week of the First Flame – it's a week of celebrating the week that the Dragon created everything, when the first flames were blown. Pilgrimages are common then, pilgrims pray for what they're thankful for. The journeys always finish on Sparx, just like the Dragon. Your mother got there in the middle of one of the dances, about to pray when Oritel recognised her and threw her out; despite the fact that she was obviously heavily pregnant."

Bloom laid back down on her bed, staring up at her pale ceiling as she listened to Gabriel.

"So she snuck in later and prayed about how thankful she was for you. Daphne spotted her, Rosario told her about you – that you were her miracle. Daphne was so happy for her, she let it slip to her parents though. Marion and Oritel had Daphne keep an eye out. But the girl was oblivious, she thought her parents wanted to know about Rosario's miracle child. Then you were born. Rosario wasn't a priestess so she couldn't recognise the signs, but Oritel and Marion did. They had you kidnapped but it was Faragonda who decided to kill your parents."

Bloom closed her eyes for a moment. "What about my dad? What did I get from him?"

"You got your red hair and blue eyes from both your parents because those are both recessive genes. From what I know about you, you get your curiosity, insecurity, escapist streak and stubbornness off him. Of course, you will have some traits from Mike and Vanessa."

* * *

Bloom groaned in frustration as she weakly clutched the sink for the fifth time that day. A thin layer of cold sweat covered her, her hair was more of a mess than usual and she just felt sick. She wretched and wretched but nothing, she felt too ill to eat. Sunlight poured down on her through the large windows, every passing second made her feel weaker and weaker. She reached into her backpack with shaking hands and pulled out her phone. She managed to send a one word text ('help') before her eyes closed and she slipped into unconsciousness.

When she came to, she was in her dorm room. She tried to sit up, but her body felt too weak and her arms shook. The world spun.

"Don't." Gabriel said, passing her some strange glowing drink. She took it and frowned.

"How did you get in? Does anyone know that you're here?" She asked.

"One question at a time." Gabriel chuckled, running a hand through his short brown hair. "I came through the front door; I told everyone that you were just tired after spending the night at my apartment, per your dad's worried orders."

"She's strangely quiet." Bloom mumbled, feeling like she was high on happy gas.

"It's because you're so weak." He told her. "Drink that. It'll make you feel better."

"What is it?"

The drink was fizzy, silver and glowed with a white light.

"It's an energy regulator because... I hope I'm going explain it correctly but it's to do with the fact that people who are born in a 'dark realm' can go a few years in a 'light realm' – and visa versa. The only effect being weakened powers, but without energy regulators, they eventually fall ill and die. Cloudtower has these installed in machines that pump it into the air..." He paused. "I'm guessing Faragonda never gave any of you one when you went to Shadowhaunt?"

"Considering that I've never heard of it, go with no." She replied, raising the drink to her lips and swallowing. It fizzed up her nose and it actually tasted pretty good – like Mike's lemonade that he always made during the summer. The glass was empty before she knew it.

"Give it half an hour to being to work properly and you should be fine for the next four days." Gabriel frowned, resting his chin on his knuckles as he sat down on a chair next to her bed. "The weakening effect has always been there because in your current form, you should be able to level all of Magix city and the surrounding villages, killing all of the people there, if you actually wanted to. Maybe Faragonda wanted to see something, wanted to test you? Possibly. Test her actions or yours? Test my brother? I could go to the extreme theory and suggest that she wanted to kill you but I don't know." He sighed. "There's too much that we don't actually know and these are all just theories."

"We need to make a list of all the stuff that we have to figure out." She said.

"It's already on my to-do list."

Bloom bit her bottom lip. "I want to know more about your brother." She told him, avoiding his gaze and tugged on a red curl. "Was he born evil? Was he an evil kid?"

"No, nobody is born evil. Not even my brother but it was always inside him. He couldn't help it, couldn't resist it. But that's a story for another time, once you're feeling better and once you or we know a bit more." He replied, fiddling with his emerald ring, the 'G' in the middle of the silver that encased the emerald catching the light. "Okay, so I have to get back to work. I've left a book for you considering you're still supposed to be asleep for the next couple of hours. That's what I told your teachers. See you later." He said, ruffling her red hair and exiting the dorm. Bloom glared at his back before she reached over and picked up the hard-back tome that Gabriel had left on her bedside table.

Resting it in her lap, she turned to the contents page. It was a spell book! At least, it was a book full of neutral rituals and spells. She skimmed down the page, mesmerised by the feeling of aged parchment and old, crack ink beneath her fingertip.

Her phone began to ring loudly causing her to jump. She made a mental note to change her ringtone, this one was killing her ears. She checked the ID. 'Sky'. She pressed ignore. She didn't want to listen to any excuses right now. She flicked through the grimore until she fell asleep.

_The dungeon was dark and damp. Rats squeaked so loudly, it was murder on her ears. She didn't dare create a fire; who knows what she'd see? The Trix were waiting outside her cell, giggling to themselves in sadistic pleasure. Darkar had told them to watch her 'and watch her only'. Although judging by the snippets of conversation and laughter that she had caught, they hadn't listened to him._

_A light appeared above her, a bare light bulb that consistently flickered. Stella stood near the door, dressed in her tiered orange and yellow dress. She looked strange in the darkness of Shadowhaunt. Stella's brown eyes glared at her, a look on disgust on her face; nose scrunched._

"_I can't believe that we were ever friends." She told her._

"_Stel, what are you talking about?"_

"_We're all better without you. You did nothing but bring us down. If it wasn't for you, the Trix would never have been able to summon the Army of Decay. You and your search for your parents. It's pathetic, you're pathetic. You should stay with Darkar, you belong there!" Stella told her._

_Sky stepped out of the darkness, his blue eyes furious. "She's right. We're happier without you! What will people think of you when they compare you to Stella or Daphne? You're nothing, you hear me? Nothing."_

"_You only screw up. We're better without you! You let the Trix take the Dragon Flame, you stole the Codex!" Stella crowed._

"_You only hurt people." Sky told her, his revolted eyes cast down on her. "You only hurt people. You hurt Diaspiro, you hurt Vanessa and Mike, you got Daphne killed! If it wasn't for you, the entity of Sparx would still be alive."_

"_No." She whispered. "No, it's not true."_

"_Yes, it is." Stella told her, sincerity in her eyes. "It's all your fault. You have the Dragon Flame, if you hadn't been born the Ancestral Witches would never have targeted Sparx. The planet wouldn't be dead, nobody would be dead."_

"_It's all your fault. Everything is your fault." Sky told her._

"_No. No, it isn't." Bloom whispered hoarsely. "It's not true. It can't be."_

"_But it is." Stella insisted. "You know that it is. You only hurt and destroy."_

"_You got me killed." Sky continued. "You may have brought me back but you got me killed."_

_Bloom began to sob, looking down. "I – I didn't." She countered, raising her head to Stella and Sky in the middle of making out. Flora walked towards her, ignoring the two blondes._

"_You only hurt us. We're better without you, you're so weak. You couldn't keep the Dragon Flame; you let Darkar into the school. Everything is your fault. It's like you were created to destroy, even if that wasn't your intention. You still only hurt and destroy. It's like you were created to spread misery and darkness."_

"_No." She sobbed. "It's not true. It isn't true."_

"_We always hated you." Flora told her._

_Suddenly, the light and the other three disappeared. A different scene reappeared a second later. Sky had his chest ripped open, Stella's throat was ripped out. Flora was a bloody and tattered mess; Musa and Tecna were the same. Layla looked like she had been drowned in blood. Bloom whimpered, bringing her hand to mouth. Only to recoil in horror, her hands were covered in thick scarlet blood. Dripping blood, it was still hot. Then it all disappeared as quickly as it had reappeared. Loud screams, girl's screams, came from the hallway._

"_You directly disobeyed my orders. I don't give out orders for people like you to ignore them." Darkar. There was a flash of black light beneath the gap in the door followed by Icy's scream. She could hear Stormy and Darcy cowering._

"_Get out of my sight! All three of you while I decide what to do with you." He told them. She could hear the sound of running footsteps then black fire lit her cell. It wasn't what she expected. A small room with black stone walls and floor, empty chains on the wall. Nothing else. The heavy door swung open. Her head jolted upwards and became annoyingly aware that she was still crying. She wiped away her tears, no blood. He walked up to her as she tried to press herself against the stone wall, desperately wishing that she could just walk through it. He stopped close to her and reached out. He wiped away her stray tears._

"_I'm sorry." He apologised. "I should have left somebody else with you. I had no idea that – that they would-"_

"_You did." She accused angrily, cutting him off and shoving him away. "You knew! You fucking knew! You probably told them to do it so you could in and do this so I'd start to like you."_

"_While that would have worked for someone else, that wasn't my plan. For my plan, I need you to be completely intact and that includes your mind. So that idea doesn't actually make sense now, does it? If you don't believe me, you have empathetic abilities. Use them."_

_Bloom frowned as she closed her eyes and willed the power forward. Darkar's aura was a bright burning red. He was telling the truth. "You're pissed off." She told him. "Really, really pissed off."_

_He nodded. "You need to be sane and completely whole for what I have planned, even if you don't agree to it. They're being bullies, doing what bullies do best and throwing a temper tantrum because they're pissed off that I brought you here."_

* * *

Her eyes opened, a dark grin creeping onto her face. She jumped up out of the disgustingly pale bed sheets and headed to the mirror in excitement. A blue-eyed carbon copy stood in the mirror, tears pouring down her face as she beat the glass inside, it rippled like water.

"No!" The girl in the mirror screamed. She smiled, stretching and moving her hands before squealing loudly and jumping up and down.

"I'm back bitch!" She told the girl in the mirror. She spun around and flexed all of her fingers.

"No!" The girl in the mirror screamed. "No!"

The girl's grin stretched wider as she shook her head, her wild red curls shaking, and exited the dorm. In the common room, all six girls were waiting with anxious expressions. None of them were looking at each other; Flora was absent-mindedly stroking Kiko, Layla couldn't stand still, Stella was pacing, Tecna was playing with her skinny fingers and Musa was sat in a foetal position on the ground, her back pressed up against the sofa.

Stella saw her first, running up to her and hugging her tightly. Urgh, she didn't really like hugs. The others jumped up when they saw her.

"Are you okay? You're okay, right?" The blonde babbled.

She smiled. "Never been better."

"That's good." Flora grinned. Stella cut in again.

"So who's the hottie?"

Gabriel? Ew. His brother, however…

"His name's Gabriel Reaves. He's a friend of my parents but don't bother trying anything. He's over thirty." She replied.

* * *

'When will this shit finish?' She thought angrily, unable to wait for the end of class. They were going to be surprised to see that she was still here. 'You can't get rid of me so easily, bitches.' God, all the good vibrations and touchy-feely-ness was making her feel ill. A few seconds later, Avalon dismissed them. She grinned and ran.

"Bloom, wait." Flora cried. She ignored her.

"Why's she in a hurry?" Stella asked.

"No idea." Tecna replied.

"It could be trouble." Musa pointed out.

"Trouble? Does this mean that we're going to follow her?" Stella asked the others, groaning. Bloom rolled her eyes as she headed down a different corridor. Where was that archive? It was the perfect battleground, nobody would think to look for them there and it would allow her to go and talk to Faragonda with no worries.

"This all looks bright and new." She commented as she walked into the archive, all of the books she burnt had been either replaced or recreated from the ashes. _Just like a phoenix._

_Please stop! _The little voice in her head begged.

_No way! I want to see the look in Faragonda's face when she realizes what her actions have caused!_

"Bloom?" A surprised Concorda asked. "It-it's a surprise to see you here."

"Yeah. I bet it is." She laughed and things clicked for the pixie.

"You!" She accused.

She giggled. "No shit."

"You're not getting the codex." The pixie crossed her tiny arms with a look of defiance on her face. She rolled her eyes and summoned a blast of power, trapping the pixie in a ball of purple energy.

"I'm not after it." She told her, transforming and fluttering her wings. She rose in the air and hovered. The feeling of wind on her skin meant freedom, even if she was in the horrible pale blue outfit.

"Bloom?" She heard Stella call as they entered the archive. She grinned to herself. Show time.

"Yes?" She asked.

"Is something wrong?" Flora asked.

"Yeah. Something is. I'm tired of all your cheeriness and good vibrations; you should save those for someone who actually cares. And those little heart-felt notes that you pass to those morons that you call boyfriends, eww! You're all pathetic."

Flora looked like she was going to cry.

"That can't be Bloom talking." Lockette told her.

"Oh, Lockette! You're here. I wondered where you were." She said, casting the spell that she had cast on Concorda.

"Bloom!" Tecna scolded. "Stop that." She just laughed.

"But it's so much fun!" She told them, grinning.

"She's still under Darkar's spell." Musa insisted.

"But he's dead." Layla countered.

"But his spell must not be." Tecna said.

She sent a purple blast at them but they all ducked. She gritted her teeth and sent out five purple blasts that exploded in a rain of fire. She had hit them but she had only wounded them. She wanted to draw this out.

"Why aren't you fighting?" She growled. "Are you scared? Is it because I'm more powerful than all of you combined?" She laughed. "If you want to run away, I won't hold it against you. Come on! Fight back!"

"Sun storm!" Stella yelled as she threw a ball of light at her. It exploded brightly. She sighed, feeling nothing at the attack, only her body absorbing the energy. The light of the blast faded away.

"What?" Stella cried.

"You got nothing! Nothing! Destroying you is going to be so much fun!" She shrieked with laughter.

"Electric storm." Tecna sent a blast of green electricity towards her.

"Fire blade!" She yelled, sending out two beams of fire from her open palms. She aimed at Tecna's blast. Her power cancelled out the green blast and the resulting energy threw all five of them and the pixie's to the ground.

"Did she say destroy us?" Layla asked.

"Yeah, I did." She replied. "It's going to be so much fun!"

"She's just toying with us." Tecna told them. "She's unfocused... Did anyone else notice that she keeps talking about fun? She never did that before."

Rolling her eyes, she sent a blast of purple energy at them. Flora shrieked in pain. She giggled in delight as she hopped from one foot to the other in mid-air.

"Deafening chord." Musa shot pink sound-waves at her. She let it hit her arm and waved it away.

"That was weak." She giggled as they started to get to their feet. "Dragon's heart!" She yelled, releasing two balls of fire at the five fairies. They glowed with orange and blue fairy dust, exploding on contact and sent them back on the floor, gasping.

"Yup, totally playing with us." Musa agreed.

"Shouldn't Bloom be back to normal? Darkar's gone and Sky saved her." Stella commented.

"Sky?" She laughed. "He was round the other night. Let's just say that things didn't end well for us. He keeps trying to apologise."

"What? Is that enough?" Flora questioned, gripping her arm.

"Seems like." Layla answered.

"Aww, I don't suppose you're bleeding Flora?" She asked, flying down.

Flora grimaced. "No."

"Shame, I'm hungry."

"Time out." Musa flew up to her eye-level. "Did you just say that you would have drunk Flora's blood?"

"Would you really like me to spell it out for you?" She questioned. "Get out of my face or I'll destroy you first. Fire arrow." She sent out a beam of fire that, due to their close proximity, blasted Musa completely out of the air in two seconds.

"Why would you drink blood? You're not a vampire." Stella shrieked, fluttering up into the air.

She sighed as she summoned a ball of fiery, purple energy. "It tastes so nice. I don't know what it does, just that it does something."

"Darkar." Stella paused. "You drank Darkar's blood?!"

She laughed. "It took you long enough! It tasted so nice. I was still a prisoner back then. I couldn't help it, it was calling to me, begging for me to. I wonder if you guys taste the same."

"Please, tell me that I'm not the only one grossed out?" Stella asked them.

"Didn't you listen? Bloom drank Darkar's blood before he turned her." Tecna told them. "Calling to her? Why?"

"Oh, I don't know." She replied. "I'm afraid Lord Darkar is the only one with that answer." She giggled as she dodged the blast Layla sent at her. "I'd say give it your best shot but it looks like you just did. And it was very bad, very weak."

"Okay, Bloom. You're totally asking for this so I don't feel sorry." Stella said, creating a brilliant wave of silver energy that made her grimace. "Supernova!"

She crossed her arms over her chest. "Fire catcher." She yelled, absorbing Stella's attack.

"What?!" Stella shrieked, summoning her spectre.

"I'm going enjoy wiping the floor with you guys." She said, sending out a blast of purple energy that Stella managed to dodge but Layla didn't and was thrown back onto the floor.

"Dazzling spiral." Stella sent a translucent bean of light at her. She waved it away.

"Guys, her power level is completely off the scale. Like way off." Tecna told them. "There's nothing we can do that can against her."

"Imagine what she'll be like if she gets properly mad? Like last time with the witch outfit?" Musa asked. "There must be a reason she chose this room."

"She's not after the codex!" Concorda yelled from her fiery cage. "I already checked."

"Concorda?" Layla asked in surprise. The trapped pixie nodded.

"We can always hold her." Flora suggested. "Earth cage." She yelled, vines growing up out of the floor and wrapping around her. She gritted her teeth.

"I hate flowers!" She yelled. "You guys asked for this! When you play with fire, you get burned!"

She stopped hovering, letting herself fall to the ground where everyone else was. She curled her hands into fists and brought them down onto the floor. "Dragon fire!" She screamed, unleashing a very powerful wave for fiery energy that shattered and tore up the concrete.

The other five girls screamed and shrieked, flying up into the air.

Suddenly her head began to pound.

_No! No! Stop it! I'm in control of you! I'm in control now!_

Her internal screaming became quieter as she was violently shoved back into her place inside the recesses of the mind that they shared. Bloom began to cry as she de-transformed.

She threw herself down to the ground. "Guys, I'm sorry." She whispered hoarsely. "I'm so, so sorry. I didn't mean – I – I-" She couldn't talk anymore, she just broke down crying.

* * *

The Trix walked through one of the hallways of the Shadowhaunt palace towards the throne room. Darkar was in there with a servant, a bloodied switch-blade laid on the floor. His mouth on the servant's neck as though he was kissing her but her body was completely limp, her eyes closed. Then he drew back, dropping the body to the ground. A huge gash was in the woman's neck, blood covered her uniform.

Darkar sat on his throne, wiping away the thick, deep scarlet blood from his mouth. "Come in." He told them before they had knocked.

"Hungry?" Icy asked.

He cast a look at her as he finished wiping away the blood. "We were trapped in Realix for over a month. I'm starving." He sighed, leaning back in his throne and throwing his legs over the arm of the throne. "How did your spying go?"

"Fine. She was fine and with some guy." Icy replied, flicking her white-blonde ponytail around.

"A guy with a lot of dark energy." Darcy added. Darkar raised a black eyebrow.

"That's interesting. What did this guy look like?" He asked, resting his chin on his enclosed fist.

"Pale, brown hair, looked average height." Icy replied.

"Broad forehead, angular jaw line, athletic and wearing a very gaudy emerald ring?" He asked, playing with his own gaudy ring; a black crystal rather than an emerald.

"Yeah, that's him." Stormy answered.

"I know him." Darkar said. "So she was fine? Completely unharmed?"

"Why do we have to spy when you can do that viewing thing?" Darcy asked but Darkar ignored her.

"Yup." Icy replied. "I wish she wasn't. Little bitch deserves some pain."

He jumped up and wrapped the room in a cocoon of thick, black darkness. He grabbed Icy by the throat and raised her up off of the floor. "I thought I ordered you not to hurt her! If you disobey orders like you did last time, then you will be useless to me. You want to know what I do to useless people? I drain them. And after that month in Realix, both me and the Shadows need a lot of feeding!" He yelled.

"I- I'm sorry." Icy gasped out.

"Good." He said, dropping her.

Darcy paused. "So who is that guy that she was with? Not her Prince Charming, obviously."

Darkar laughed. "No, he definitely isn't. He's nobody you need to concern yourself with. I'm glad he's there. He's helping her."

"Helping her like your spy did last time?" Stormy asked.

"No," He replied. "He's actually helping her. Which is good, she's going to need all the help she can get."

"Why the fuck would you want someone to help that little bitch?" Icy asked. Darkar rounded on her again, picking her up the throat once more and began to squeeze.

"Remember what I just told you?" He asked.

"Y-yes." She choked out. He dropped her again, she landed in a heap on the floor.

"Sorry, she's not good with people, even by witch standards. What she meant to say was if she's on the opposing side to us, why do you think it's good to have someone help her? Please?"

"You have patience, that's good. It's important with things like this. But I don't put all my eggs into one basket. So have you ever heard that if you tell people a story so much that you begin to forget the actual events and believe what you tell people?"

"Yes." Darcy replied. Stormy and Icy nodded.

"Good. Let's just say that's happening to a certain person named Faragonda with a certain incident. But enough about that, I have another mission for you. I want you to go to Alfea and just show yourself to the staff and students."

"That's it?!" Stormy asked in disbelief.

"Yes. Don't attack them, we just want to scare them." Darkar replied.

"Pain is scary." Icy commented.

"Yes but while it is, it's not the most scariest thing. What's worse is waiting for the attacks and the pain, driving yourself mad as you wait for it to begin. The paranoia slowly eating away at you, not knowing when it'll begin but wanting it to so the waiting is over. Just suspecting that it will is enough, fear is more powerful than pain."


End file.
